Archive for November, 2011

Packers WR says being white is his secret to success

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Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson says he has a competitive advantage over the league. That advantage?

He’s white.

Nelson told the Green Bay Press Gazette this week that he thinks being white has helped him rank among the league’s leaders in receiving yards (Oh, and the quarterback throwing to him isn’t bad either.)

Nelson feels that because of his race, opposing defenses have a tendency to dismiss him as unathletic and slow.

“(Cornerbacks coach) Joe Whitt tells me all the time, when all the rookies come in he gives them the heads up: ‘Don’t let him fool ya,’” Nelson said. “That’s fine with me.”

Teammate and fellow WR Greg Jennings echoed the sentiment.

“A lot of it has to do with the fact that guys look at him say, ‘OK, yeah, he’s the white guy, he can’t be that good,’” Jennings said. “Well, he is that good.”

This season, Nelson is averaging 70.3 yards receiving per game and is second in the league with an average of 18.6 yards per catch. So, race aside, the secret’s out about Nelson.

On that note, are we the only ones who were reminded of this?

McDonald’s customer would rather eat burger than deal with her burning car

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A Mississippi woman’s burger run ended with her car destroyed by a fire and her arrest, according to a video posted by Hattiesburg, Miss. TV station WDAM.

Drive-thru workers at a McDonald’s let a customer know that her car was on fire as she pulled up to the window. The woman parked the car and went into the restaurant to wait for her order and eat the food rather then dealing with the blaze, WDAM said.

After McDonald’s called 911 and the fire department extinguished the fire (which completely burnt her vehicle), she fought with the cops who just needed her information for the report.
From the story:

When an officer attempted to escort the driver back to the presence of firefighters for questioning, she allegedly resisted and punched him. She was then arrested on four misdemeanor counts including public profanity, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and disorderly conduct.

(H/T Consumerist)

Sex hog heaven for bacon lovers is finally here

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(jdfoods.net)

If you’ve heard of BaconSalt you may be familiar with J&D’s, who also make Baconnaise and BaconPop. Now they’ve gone way outside the kitchen and are introducing baconlube.

Says Jezebel.com:

Now they’ve created a limited quantity of bacon-flavored lube and massage oils for troubled individuals who want their lover to taste more like cured pork.

According to baconlube.com:

Before you start giving meat-flavored massages, we have one small admission to make – baconlube began as an elaborate April Fool’s prank and was never intended to be a real product. But when the joke ended, the emails kept coming. People harassed us via email, in public and in highly inappropriate ways (thanks for that). The waiting list grew to over 3,000 people. Expectations were built.

So who’s responsible for this highly anticipated creation actually coming to life? You are, that’s who. You and an intern named Martin actually, who sacrificed and offended his taste buds in the name of science on sample after failed sample before this really did taste like bacon.

We’ll make no judgments about why you want this or what you want to do with it, but baconlube is here and it’s real for a limited time. Keep It Sizzlin’.

And in case you’re wondering, it’s kosher.

Benetton’s ‘leaders kissing’ ads raise papal ire

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Italian clothing retailer United Colors of Benetton — long-known for its controversial advertising campaigns — has drawn the ire of the Vatican this time.

Apparently, Pope Benedict XVI, wasn’t overly thrilled with the Photoshopped image of him locking lips with Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed El-Tayeb, an Egyptian religious leader.

Benetton has since pulled the image, according to the Associated Press, but not before it hit the internet.

USA TODAY:

“The campaign shows that we need to have courage to not hate others,” says Alessandro Benetton, executive deputy chairman of Benetton, and son of the Italian-based company’s founder, Luciano. The Obama bussing Jintao ad is scheduled to appear next week in issues of Newsweek, New York magazine and The Economist, says Benetton spokesman Luca Biondolillo.

One would have to assume Kim Jong Il isn’t happy about being pictured kissing South Korea’s Lee Myung-bak (see below), but the ads are doing exactly what they were meant to do…and people certainly are talking.

SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS:


Canadian baseball team ‘London Rippers’ draws criticism

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A minor league baseball team in Ontario is feeling the heat this week for naming itself the “London Rippers.” But, before you jump to any crazy conclusions, the ownership claims that the name is a reference to a hockey player who could “rip the cover off baseballs.”

What, you didn’t know that story?

If you had any doubts about the London Rippers, take one look at their logo. Looks a whole lot like the Jack the Ripper of our popular imagination … only he appears to be ready to murder a prostitute with a baseball bat.

Team president David Martin swears it isn’t so.

“That (Jack The Ripper) is not our story,” Martin told the London Free Press. ”Ripping a ball is used in baseball all the time.”

As you might imagine, many women’s groups in particular are displeased with this seeming homage to a serial killer who preyed on prostitutes. As the Free Press reports, they’re now asking the Rippers to change their branding immediately.

Intentions aside, you’ve got to hand it to the Rippers. This is either the best or the worst PR move in Canadian baseball history but, either way, now you know there IS a Canadian baseball league.

Netherlands set to ban tourists from cannabis coffeeshops

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A man lights up a marijuana pipe in central Holland’s “Cannabis Castle”. outside Nijmegen. (AP)

But where will Woody Harrelson vacation?

In a move that many feel will only increase crime rates in the country, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte plans to ban pothead tourists from visiting the Netherlands’ many legal cannabis coffeehouses. Under his new plan, residents would have to carry cannabis cards to frequent any of the country’s 670 weed shops.

From NYDailyNews.com:

“The measure will come into force for the (southern) provinces of Limburg, North-Brabant and Zeeland, the provinces most affected by drug tourism, on January 1,” justice ministry spokeswoman Charlotte Menten told AFP.

Under the new policy, which some have warned could drastically curb tourism revenues, licenced coffee shops will be considered private clubs with a maximum of 2,000 members limited to Dutch residents who are older than 18.

Menten said the measures would come into force in the rest of the country in January 2013.

The policy aims to cut down traffic jams, nocturnal disturbances, and the abundance of drug pushers catering to the millions of foreign tourists drawn to the Netherlands by its relaxed marijuana laws.

Coffee shop owners have come out against the measures, citing expected losses in revenue.

The European Court of Justice ruled in December that banning foreigners was justified “by the objective of combating drug tourism and the accompanying public nuisance”.

TSA warns travelers: We’re not the Grinch, but we may unwrap your presents

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As Americans approach the holiday season, and holiday travel, the Transportation Securities Administration has already begun to notice complaints referring to screeners as Grinch, Scrooge and even Heat Miser for their policy of unwrapping Christmas presents when necessary.

TSA insists they’re not Grinchy.

The TSA blog tells passengers to quit the Christmas-villain name-calling, and they promise they’ll only open your gifts when additional screening is needed to see what’s in the boxes:

Since TSA’s inception, we’ve worked to educate passengers about traveling with wrapped presents. This is nothing new. Wrapped gifts are screened just like any other item. We can see through the paper just like we can see through luggage, but just as we have to open a bag when it requires a search due to an anomaly or an alarm, we have to open wrapped items as well if they alarm or require additional screening.

We want your gift to arrive wrapped just as much as you do. Just know the possibility is there that if the item alarms, we might have to open it to resolve the alarm. We don’t enjoy unwrapping presents that aren’t for us, but if an anomaly is detected inside, we’ll have to unwrap it in order to determine what it is so we can clear it for travel.

And don’t forget to leave your snowglobes at home.

Facebook investigating flood of porn, violence spamming

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Don’t look!

Attention Facebook users: Your sweet aunt is not really sending you images of pornography, violence or bestiality.

The social media site has found itself tormented by spammers of the most vulgar kind. The links and images are being sent to you unbeknownst to the person Facebook is doing the sending.

So if you’ve found your newsfeed populated with not safe for work images or links to things you’d really rather not look at, rest assured that your friends and family aren’t the ones interested in these things. It’s just the work of spammers.

From zdnet.com:

A little over two hours later, Palo Alto has sent along a slightly more detailed statement. “Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us and we are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms. We have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue.”

The company representative also said more information will be shared when it is known. In the meantime, the following is what we know so far.
Some members of the social network are complaining about violent and/or pornographic pictures showing up in their News Feeds without their knowledge that they have allegedly Liked. Others are being told by their friends that they are sending requests to click on links to videos, sending out bogus chat messages, or writing mass messages and tagged photos leading people to believe they are in the link.

In other words, this is the type of spam we’ve seen on Facebook before, but it’s coming in at a much faster pace, as if it was something planned in advance. It’s currently unclear if users are required to click on something to start spreading the spam, or if this is an actual attack leveraging some kind of vulnerability in the service’s code.