Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/LXqb6hPD0c8/index.html
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Flood dream spurs 'Johan's Ark'
A Dutchman has built a replica of Noah's Ark to biblical proportions, following a dream his homeland would be flooded.
AL West-leading Rangers get Cubs ace Ryan Dempster (Yahoo! Sports)
CHICAGO (AP) -- The Texas Rangers won the Ryan Dempster sweepstakes, acquiring the Chicago Cubs ace for two minor leaguers moments before Tuesday's trade deadline.
Frenchman puts teary Beijing exit behind him (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) - Four years after leaving Beijing in tears when a last-minute warning for holding cost him a shot at a gold medal, France's Alexis Vastine was just happy to be back in an Olympic ring on Sunday. The centre of a heated dispute described as "a murder" by France's head coach in 2008, the experienced 25-year-old dispatched tidy German fighter Patrick Wojcicki in much calmer fashion on Day Two of the Olympics at London's boxing arena. ...
Quiz: Could you park a plane?
Every day 1,300 aircraft pass through London's Heathrow Airport. Making sure all those planes are in the right place at the right time is the job of the aircraft marshal.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/i7GuvebSw7c/index.html
'Brilliantly bonkers' show does Britain proud
From the animated history lesson taking in the Industrial Revolution and the suffragette...
Source: http://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/201207278815/london-2012-olympics-opening-ceremony/
Brett Keisel travels by tractor these days
I really wish that Pepper Leach could've been around when Brett Keisel showed up at Steelers training camp Wednesday (this link contains naughty language).
Keisel decided to arrive by way of the gigantic front-loading Kubota tractor you see above. If you're thinking something like, "That must have been terribly inconvenient for anyone else trying to travel on the same roads he was on," you would be absolutely correct. Via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
[Keisel] said he drove the tractor about 20 miles Wednesday, including up Route 30 into Latrobe. Along the way, he received some strange glances from other drivers.
"It took me maybe an hour," he said. "I got some looks. People were like, 'What is this guy doing?'"
Keisel's got a love of tractors that goes back to his Wyoming childhood. He's got a pal in the area that allows him to use his tractors for ? I don't know, whatever Brett Keisel might use a tractor for. Showing up for training camp and annoying motorists, apparently.
That wasn't the only unique thing about Keisel's look, though.
His beard, once mighty and once shorn, is coming back for 2012 with a vengeance. It's already got about a two-month growth, and I'm sure it won't feel warm or itchy at all in the Latrobe summer heat.
Keisel wore a special T-shirt, too, depicting his kneeling archer sack dance, alongside the words, "HUNT FOR VII," in reference to the Steelers' quest for a seventh career franchise Super Bowl victory. No one can accuse Brett Keisel of not making an entrance.
Monday, 30 July 2012
Dramatic rescue of wedding party
A wedding caravan fell 30 feet into a river after a bridge collapsed in China.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/25zy3h0g9Qc/
Jim Harbaugh denies A.J. Jenkins? rough preseason, blames media for the whole thing
The San Francisco 49ers surprised a lot of pundits when they selected Illinois receiver A.J. Jenkins with the 30th overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft, especially when there was still talent like Appalachian State's Brian Quick, LSU's Rueben Randle, Georgia Tech's Stephen Hill and Stanford's Coby Fleener still on the board. Jenkins was�productive in college, but most scouting services didn't give him with a first-round grade, and NFLDraftScout.com may have put the concerns best when it said Jenkins "doesn't appear to have the strength or natural speed to hold up on the outside as a pro, but could develop into a solid No. 3 or 4 for a team if he becomes more disciplined as a route-runner and devotes himself to the game of football."
Early reports from minicamps were less than compelling. From the start, those at 49ers practices observed Jenkins struggle in nearly every aspect of the NFL challenge. He showed up out of shape to his first minicamp, had issues holding up through more advanced offensive drills as time went on, and looked nothing like a first-round pick. Head coach Jim Harbaugh, however, had nothing but positives for the kid, even as all reports were negative.
"He's very into it, very gung-ho," Harbaugh told the media in mid-June. "Very fast ? fast, fast. Excellent hands. He's got the ability to get in and out of cuts with his foot speed and turn over. He doesn't get stuck at the top of routes, he's able to get out of those cuts. He's right on track. A.J. Jenkins is going to be just fine."
Now that training camp has started and Jenkins appears to be getting with the program -- according to some recent reports -- Harbaugh couldn't wait to take a shot at the media, which he seems to enjoy targeting more than any receiver during his 15-year term as an NFL quarterback.
"A.J Jenkins was an outstanding football player when he got here. His progress has been very, very good, and exceeded expectations.
"For those -- the scribes, pundits, so-called experts -- who have gone so far as to say that he's going to be a bust, should just stop. I recommend that because they're making themselves look more clueless than they already did.
"I'll go on record: A.J. is going to be an outstanding football player. So far in camp and what he's done in the offseason has led us to believe nothing but he'll be an outstanding football player in the National Football League."
When asked if he expected Jenkins to make an impact right away, Harbaugh let it fly just a bit more.
"It's been consistent, steady improvement every time he's come out here on the field or when we've been in a meeting. And it was already outstanding to begin with. If you recall the first day he was here at the rookie minicamp, I said, 'This is the best group of young receivers that I've ever been a part of in football, as a player or a coach.' It was good to start with and it's been better and better each day.
"And, yeah, I'm going to keep track of some of these names of so-called experts who were making these comments. And there's going to be an 'I told you so.' I foresee that happening."
Fair enough, but does that mean that the Bay Area media get to take open shots at Harbaugh's football acumen whenever Jenkins has a bad game? Does Harbaugh want to set that bar? The coach is correct when he says that it's tough to determine much from early practices, but when a first-round pick shows up in rough shape, it's a legitimate story, and I didn't see many local reports taking personal shots at the rookie. For better or worse, football beat writers are hired, trained and paid to make too much out of practice events because their readers love any bit of football news.
And as Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee points out, this just puts the focus more on Jenkins than was already there before. Perhaps that was the idea all along, and Harbaugh is using the media to put the pressure on his top rookie. Or, perhaps the coach has developed a severe case of rabbit ears when it comes to the media (this isn't the first time he's gone out of his way to take unsolicited shots in the last few months), and we'll see where that takes us through the 2012 season.
Mini-racing: Get the Indy experience in 10 minutes
The Brickyard is one of motorsports' greatest tracks, but let's be honest, it doesn't always lead to the best racing for NASCAR. Unless, of course, you're Hendrick Motorsports, in which it's a lovely gem. Here's a ten-minute recap of all that happened, from Carl Edwards' early troubles to Matt Kenseth's points-lead-losing wreck to Jimmie Johnson's utter domination. Enjoy.
Sunday, 29 July 2012
Wolves sign Russian, ex-Jazz standout Kirilenko (Yahoo! Sports)
Andrei Kirilenko is returning to the NBA, this time with Minnesota.
Michael Jackson Immortal Tour: How They Uphold The Legacy
MTV News gets a behind-the-scenes look at the Cirque Du Soleil tribute to the King of Pop.
By Uptin Saiidi
<P><b>NEWARK</b> — Since its opening, <a href="/news/articles/1682347/michael-jackson-immortal-cirque.jhtml">Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour</a> by Cirque Du Soleil has honored the King of Pop through music, dance and acrobatics 117 times. Night after night, artists celebrate the life of the late Michael Jackson, but how do they take his iconic legacy and put it into a production? When the tour came to New York City this week, MTV News went behind the scenes to talk with the creative forces and performers to find out.</P><P>The artists (all 65 of them) had limited time to train and learn choreography -- an especially difficult feat when it's honoring MJ's signature moves. It was a kind of pressure that creative director Tara Young certainly learned to channel into a positive force.</P><P><CENTER><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:755805/cp~vid%3D755805%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A755805" width="430" height="242" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="."></embed></CENTER></P><P>"I think it is a pressure for sure; something I share with the whole building here is that we have nothing to prove, only to share," Young told MTV News. "We have an opportunity to share what Michael would have wanted to share and the pressure is only there to achieve excellence."</P><P>For Felix Cane, a two-time world champion pole dancer who does a captivating performance to "Danger," it was all about using that pressure to help the audience to remember the pop icon. "You are sharing this passion with them, and this love of MJ. There's times in the show when some people and I, myself, might have shed a few tears."</P><P>That pressure never felt as great as when the Jackson family sat in the front row at a show in Montreal, an experience Young described as "inspiring." When asked what MJ would think if he were sitting there with them, Young smiled, "He would feel such a sense of pride of what he has given us to work with. It evokes emotions in people that they didn't even know were going to come out."</P><P>I think everyone feels inspired, which evokes a certain feeling of change," Young added. "You feel a sadness too because he is not with us anymore, and that is an emotion that is wonderful too actually ... just to honor him."</P><P>The tour will continue in North America through the summer, before heading to Europe this fall.</P><P><i>Have you seen Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour? What did you think? Leave your comment below!</i></P><P><center><a href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1617615"><img src="http://www.mtv.com/news/photos/s/spotted/banner/spotted.jpg"></a></center></p>
Related ArtistsSource:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1682612/michael-jackson-immortal-world-tour.jhtml
Re: http://www.mrpaparazzi.com/post/20050
I am glad Rob moved out. He worships the ground she walks on and I feel that he has always been more invested in the relationship than her. I"m glad he's not going to be a doormat. I do think that if someone cheats that a relationship can recover but it will take time to mend and Rob will probably never completely trust her again. I know for me cheating is a deal breaker. Regardless, this relationship is broken. The purity and precious beauty of it is gone forever. So sad for Rob.
Source: http://www.mrpaparazzi.com/post/20050#comment-601798230
Dad gives teens money not to drink
Five years ago, Leo McCarthy lost his 14-year-old daughter, Mariah, when a drunken driver hit her and two of her friends as they walked down a sidewalk near her home. But he refused to let her tragic death become just another statistic.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/lXWgW3hw6QU/index.html
Hornets' Rivers has surgery, should make camp (Yahoo! Sports)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Hornets first-round draft pick Austin Rivers has had surgery to clean up bone spurs in his right ankle but is expected to be ready for the start of training camp.
Cuba death crash 'not accident'
The wife of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya rejects official accounts that the car crash which killed him was an accident.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19033145#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Conrad Murray to Katherine Jackson -- Call Me, Maybe
Conrad Murray suddenly thinks he's Dr. Phil -- because he wants to have a sit down with Katherine Jackson ... you know, the mother of the guy he killed. Don't hold your breath, Conny.Check out TMZ on TV -- click here to see your local listings!
Source: http://www.tmz.com/2012/07/28/conrad-murray-katherine-jackson-tmz-tv/
Saturday, 28 July 2012
The Week in Self-Delusion: As usual, Matt Millen leads the way
Millen doesn't have a clue? You don't say! Apparently, someone needed to tell ESPN that Matt Millen will generally enter a situation ill-prepared and ready to embarrass himself. So ... nobody at the Worldwide Leader remembers Millen's seven-year tenure as the team president and CEO of the Detroit Lions, when he engineered the worst record in the history of the modern NFL (31-97). Nor does ESPN seem to watch any of Millen's inexplicable turns in the booth, where he spouts meaningless goofball stuff like a low-rent John Madden. Nope.
When it came to getting Millen's opinion of his former coach, Joe Paterno, in the wake of the Freeh Report ... well, let's just say that the network's traditional "car wash" treatment didn't go well. From Poynter, ESPN's current ombudsman, via the Detroit Free Press:
"We thought analyst and Penn State alum Matt Millen was miscast. His difficulty coming to grips with the implications of the Freeh report for Paterno's legacy and Penn State's culture was painful to watch. ...
"Although acknowledging that Paterno had flaws and made mistakes, Millen repeatedly tried to deflect blame to former Penn State president Graham Spanier, and he struggled to articulate his points."
Poynter went on to blame ESPN's producers significantly, saying that Millen was too close to the situation and hadn't had time to digest the report. Of course, what amount of time it would take a man who thinks there's a single safety in Cover-2 to digest a report as complicated as this is open to debate, but we agree. Blaming Millen for pooping all over himself when asked to be coherent on the fly is like blaming your toddler for his inability to drive your pickup truck.
Santonio Holmes, PR Director: According to the New York Jets receiver, if you want to cover his team, you'd best be on the right side. In a recent appearance on Dave Dameshek's NFL.com podcast, Holmes laid it all out for the ink-stained wretches who cover the Jets.
"Because (there's) not one day that we all step in that locker room and we try to break each other down, that we talk bad about the way that person played because it affects the team the way one person plays if they don't play to perfection.
"If the New York media wants to be a part of our team and wants to continue writing about us, write positive things, stay away from the negative because it doesn't do anything good for our team that you want to report all the negative things that happen and that's all you want to talk to us players about. We live for one thing and that's to play football and not to entertain you people in the media."
Well, given the amount of bad press Holmes has received through his career (most of it well-deserved), it's not surprising that he would feel that way. But here's the thing, my friend -- we're not your teammates. It's our job to report what you do (both good and bad) as objectively as possible, and if we fail in that regard, you have every right to take us to task -- just as we have every right (and a specific obligation) to note if you're acting like a jackass. That's how "we people" roll.
Know a hero? Nominate them!
Do you know an everyday person changing the world? It's easy to nominate them as a CNN Hero.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/mifVftVQqOQ/index.html
Re: http://www.mrpaparazzi.com/post/20039
Hope she takes time out for a well needed�manicure.! �Her nails look a right ol' state!
Source: http://www.mrpaparazzi.com/post/20039#comment-599565709
Kim Jong Un, wife at amusement park
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife take in attractions at a local amusement park. State media reports.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/B08rqJo2Ljw/
Friday, 27 July 2012
Japan earns ?Miracle of Glasgow? with surprise men?s soccer win over Spain
Headlines in Japan declared Thursday's 1-0 win against heavily favored Spain on the opening day of the Olympic men's soccer tournament the "Miracle of Glasgow" as the country celebrates the pre-Opening Ceremony shocker.
Less than a month after Spain's senior team won Euro 2012 to complete a historic three consecutive major tournament wins (the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2008 being the others), its Olympic squad has been widely considered one of the favorites to continue the country's recent soccer dominance. Underrated Japan seemed unimpressed by Spain's reputation from the start of the match though, and ended up scoring in the 34th minute with a goal from 22-year-old Yuki Otsu.
[ Photos: Inspirational Olympic moments ]
Four minutes before halftime, Spain was dealt a damaging blow when defender Inigo Martinez was shown a red card for a bumbling challenge. Playing the rest of the match with just 10 men, Spain couldn't recover and Japan narrowly missed a chance to extend its lead before the final whistle, at which point Otsu burst into tears.
From Reuters:
"I was sobbing at the end of the game," match-winner Otsu told Japanese media after his close-range goal helped Japan beat Spain for the first time at any level.
"We are here to win the gold medal," added the German-based midfielder, who was tweeting "Please! Please!" from the bench in the second half after being withdrawn with a bruised ankle.
The win was reminiscent of Japan's 1-0 victory against Brazil at the 1996 Olympics, known as the "Miracle of Miami," and has momentarily diverted some attention from the country's World Cup-winning women's team.�Despite the emotions and media hyperbole, Otsu wasn't interested in writing the win off as pure magic.
"It's not a miracle," said Otsu. "It's the result of hard work and preparation."
Japan will have the chance to further prove that point against Morocco on Sunday in its second of three group-stage matches.
More Olympic coverage from the Yahoo! Sports network:
? Banned Greek triple jumper 'bitter and upset' following expulsion
? Competition is the key to the United States' gymnastic success
? Photos: Royals greet Olympic torch in England
PSA: Please remember to score the touchdown before celebrating
We turn to our friends north of the border today for our football fix, and the level of football might not be top-notch, but the me-first boneheadery is as good as it gets.
Chris Williams of the Hamilton Tiger Cats caught a Montreal field goal attempt that came up short. His return in the other direction is absolutely brilliant, right up until it starts being the exact opposite of brilliant.
Oh dear. Well, at least he didn't just casually toss the football aside, right DeSean Jackson?
Fortunately for Williams, the Ti-Cats scored on the next play. Chevon Williams bailed Williams out with a 1-yard touchdown run, and the Tiger-Cats went on to win handily at Ivor Wynne Stadium.
Gracias, Hot Clicks.
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