Selasa, 23 Februari 2010

ESPN Suspended Kornheiser for Being Kornheiser

Hannah Storm - Tony Kornheiser led his radio show Tuesday by reiterating that his remarks about Hannah Storm were "intemperate and stupid remarks" before addressing the news of his suspension from PTI:

"As a result of this, I have been sent to sidelines from PTI for a while and when I'm allowed back on PTI, I will happily go back because I love the PTI show and love all the people on the PTI show.

"I've said about 1,000 times, while doing radio in my life, the following sentence: if you put a live microphone in front of somebody, eventually, that person will say something wrong. This was one of the times I said something wrong. Beyond that, you can call me and ask me for comment. I'm not going to do it. It seems to me that, without any question, I broke the rules and this is the punishment that's come."

Honestly, I love Tony and have been on record about 1,000 times myself that the reason I do a show every day is because Kornheiser showed me a better way to do talk radio. His show, over the length and breadth of his time on radio, has been the best show around. That's it. That's the list.

Having said that, it doesn't mean anyone should care what he says. Kornheiser has made a living trashing other people for any myriad of reasons – for everything from his own amusement to professional sabotage of others in the business (and for those regular Mr. Tony listeners, by the business, I mean the industry.).

Heck, we even designed Death Star Radio charity t-shirts with the saying "Help Friends. Hurt Enemies. Have a good time."

Except this time, it seems Kornheiser didn't hurt his enemies, he took an uncontested shot at a fellow ESPN employee. So slap on the wrist he gets. As I said on Monday, while this may have been the most pointed attack at Storm's attire on SportsCenter, it was by no means the first for Kornheiser. I wasn't surprised when Kornheiser apologized, but frankly, I’m surprised that the apology wasn't enough.

Reports indicate that Kornheiser will be off PTI for "a few days" which is like giving a kid an out-of-school suspension for pantsing a girl in the lunch line. Will there be more to this? Will Kornheiser have to make a formal apology on ESPN's air upon his return to PTI or will his radio apology – on a local ESPN affiliate in Washington, D.C. – be enough to satiate the PC police in Bristol?

I guess we'll have to stay tuned…which is obviously what ESPN wants anyway.
UPDATE - ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz sent over this quote from John Skipper:
"Tony Kornheiser's comments about Hannah Storm were entirely inappropriate. Hurtful and personal comments such as these are not acceptable and have significant consequences. Tony has been suspended from PTI for two weeks. Hannah is a respected colleague who has been an integral part of the success of our morning SportsCenter."
John Skipper, ESPN Executive Vice President, Content

Selasa, 16 Februari 2010

How to Play the Blues Scale

Arisan Brondong - If you have an inclination towards playing the guitar especially the Blues Scale, you should know there are so many methods of playing them. In fact, there are hundreds of different options regarding the method of playing Blues Scale. There various variation that this style has. It is not only a traditional way of playing the guitar but the most well known one at the same time. There are various things that you need to know and follow, which would help you play not only Blues Scale but would ensure that you could play it well. Below are some tips that you to learn how to play them and play them well.

Film Arisan Brondong - Technique of playing the Blues Scale is defiantly important to start with, but that is not the only thing, as the students misunderstand. We tend to learn something and try to practice it to excel. However, this is music. This doesn’t work that way. To be the best with the Blues Scale of the guitar you must first learn the basic technique and don’t rush to excel in the same. When you would use your heart and soul, the best blues sound would start to flow. Learning and practicing only the technique would do no good. It is important to touch and feel the emotion captured in a song and later concentrate of the technique. Simple rule is that if the emotional temperament of the song is captured half the battle is won. Speed would follow later.

Get comfortable with the rhythm of the blues and then it would be easier for you to progress on the learning path. “Swung” is the most known feel. The straight 4/4 timing is used for most of the blues and other genres of music; it is easy on ear & easy to play as well. Get serene with this first to progress better in the field of learning blues scale.

Be familiar with the fret-bard of the guitar. Licks should be learned with all its different variation possible, this being the soul of the Blues Scale. Start with the licks that you are comfortable with and progress to the more challenging once later. Experiment with the licks that you know, this would not only help you to get used to the various neck position but also help to have different keys.

Slide guitar would help you stand out from the rest of the crowd that plays blues. This is simply because that the use of slide guitar is itself an art. It is difficult and that is why many people don’t attempt that. Having said that blues would sound distinguished if played on this one. Master the art of playing the slide guitar and try the blues on it – fame would follow.

The Blues Scale is the best to learn, while learning it you should go through it without leaving a stone unturned. The scale is used in many different kind of music; hence, learning it would be quite beneficial.

The Pet Shop Boys Are Back

With more then 50 million worldwide record sales since 1986, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have carried their English, electronic dance music duo through over two decades of success. This success continues to their latest album, Yes, which has everything fans have grown to love. It is filled with innovative artistry and has an excellent commercial appeal that makes "Yes" full of potential hits. Chris Lowe also returns in this album, which is something that the PSB have been missing.

Whether you are a long time fan of the PSB or this is the first album you have decided to try, you will be able to notice the large amount of insight into the music industry that this duo posses. With tracks like cool dance "Love Etc" directed to the socialite crowd, to the ballad "Beautiful People" there is something for all types of music lovers.

In the usual PSB tone that you would expect are the sneaky hidden undertones and covert social comments that the fans expect. The great thing about the Pet Shop Boys is there way of conveying their messages in such a way as to be equally as pleasing to both liberal and conservative listeners. Like in Building a Wall where it refers to not so much to keep you out/more to keep me in this could convey a message of immigration or one of intimacy or can just make for nice listening for those who aren't looking for anything more.

"Pandemonium" is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It is an incredible mix of disco that has a primal feel and takes you back to the head banger days.

"Yes" has everything you would expect from a Pet Shop Boy CD. It is danceable, everyday pop with a combination of warmth and irony making "Yes" a must have for ant PSB fan, or fans of pop music.

Sabtu, 13 Februari 2010

Understanding body kits and other car aftermarket products

As you plan to spend on your car after you have bought it you will have a wide variety of products to choose from. If you are a car enthusiast you should enjoy this process of understanding, evaluating and choosing a product.

The process starts with understanding a product. For some products such as car body kits this is not such a difficult step. However for several other products this will take some effort. Also there is the issue of how deeply you will understand a product. You can get either some superficial knowledge or indepth detailed knowledge. You may not have the time to understand all of them fully but you should take time to understand them as much as you can.

Car aftermarket products can be categorized as below:

1. Products that enhance the looks of the car
2. Products that enhance the performance of the car
3. Products that do both

Is it that simple? Well not quite. Because several products do both but are really used for only one of the two reasons.

Body kits are primarily used for improving the looks of the car. In general products that improve the looks impact the color scheme of the car and the styling of the car. They may also include adornments.

Products like engine pulleys only enhance the performance and are not visible and so have no visual impact. In general products that improve the car performance improve the aerodynamic performance, the engine performance, the performance of other car parts such as lights or the control and handling of the car.

Amongst products that improve both performance and looks are products such as projector headlights that look great and also flood the road with light at night. Another such product is a camber kit. Though the kit by itself is not very visible if you change the camber of your car by a significant amount it will be clear you have got a camber kit installed.

Another example is a cold air intake that is used mostly because it improves engine performance but since the air intake has a visual component it also enhances the visual appeal of the car.

Jumat, 12 Februari 2010

Labiaplasty And The Quest For A Designer Vagina

Alexander McQueen - I was recently reading about women who undertake labiaplasty in the quest for a designer vagina. This 'designer vagina' is what they imagine to be a 'pretty' version of a vagina, which it seems to have been decided, is a vagina where nothing 'sticks out'.

When I was 10 I was having a bath with my best friend when she pointed at my vagina and said: 'why is there something sticking out?'

Alexander McQueen Meninggal - I had a look. 'I don't know!' I said, and had a look at hers. Hmmm, nothing seemed to stick out of hers. This was puzzling. I felt instantly embarrassed and ashamed. Why was I different?

I stopped bathing with my friend and, as puberty progressed, the 'something sticking out' got bigger and bigger. It worried me, but I didn't know what it was or what to do about it.

When I was 11 I was lying in the bath with my legs splayed out when my mother walked in without knocking. 'Gosh Love, I think you should lie the other way around, nobody wants to see' she said.

'Is there something wrong with me?' I asked. 'Why is there stuff sticking out?'

I could see that it cost my mother some effort to look. Instantly I felt a surge of shame. There must be something disgusting about me.

'Well, it is very....PRONOUNCED' she said, 'but I'm sure the outside will grow and catch up and then it will stop sticking out.

As she left the bathroom, I looked at myself in horror. Something was dreadfully wrong with me. She hadn't said it was normal. She had admitted that it was PRONOUNCED! I had seen the embarrassment and slight disgust on her face as she looked at me.

As the years passed the rest did grow and catch up a little, but not all the way. There would always be 'something sticking out.' Through my teens and early twenties, I assumed I had 'an ugly one' and never shaved or trimmed my pubic hair, other than the essential bikini line. I thought that the more covered up I was the better. Even though I was well aware that men liked me just fine, I lacked confidence in nudity and always wondered when I was with a new partner if they would think something negative about me.

In hindsight I know that my mother would have been vaguely disgusted to look at ANYONE'S vagina, perhaps even her own. She had been brought up a strict catholic and told to throw powder on the surface of her bath water to save herself from the 'sin' of looking at her own body. But of course, I imagined that it must be because I was so disgusting.

All Shapes And Sizes

It was only through seeing adult movies and the more explicit men's magazines that I began to realise that everyone was different. Some had nothing sticking out, some had a bit, and others had a whole lot more! When I considered the many different shapes and sizes of penises I had come across, big ones, small ones, short fat ones, long thin ones, curved ones, pink ones, purple ones, I realised that there was no set standard that they all conformed to. Why wouldn't it be the same with women?

Labiaplasty for Uniformity

When I heard about the designer vagina craze with women undergoing cosmetic vagina modification surgery in order to conform to a specific ideal, I decided to do some research. What I found surprised me. Far from being unusual, large labia minora occurs in about 36% of women and, just like comparing big breasts to small, the majority of men do not have a preference. However, where they DO state a preference it is usually FOR larger lipped women.

So where did women get the idea that there is a certain way that a vagina is supposed to look? Why is labiaplasty such a popular procedure? Where did the ideal of the designer vagina come from?

Playboy and the 'Pretty' Vagina

Playboy magazine is not a porn magazine; it is a booby magazine. It remains mainstream through its use of very discreet genital detail. In order for it to show genital detail very discreetly, it specifically chooses models that have very small tucked in labia minora for its regular edition magazine. If a woman has large inner labia she will be shown in a pose where this is hidden.

Since Playboy is so widely read and accessible women around the world have concluded that this image is what men want, and that this is what they should be conforming to. This is not the case. The only reason Playboy does not show protruding labia minora is because it is deemed TOO EXPLICIT! Not unsexy! If anything, it is TOO SEXY.

Penthouse on the other hand, which considers itself a hard-core magazine, shows protruding inner labia ALL THE TIME! And Playboy, in its special edition, does too.

Desperate for Labiaplasty

While doing research for this article I found numerous message boards with young girls saying how much they hate themselves and how desperate they are for labiaplasty surgery to make them look normal! I also found well-meaning replies from women with the same 'problem' telling the girls not to worry, if a man loves you, he will accept you 'as you are'. Well there is something very wrong with this advice, as it assumes that there is SOMETHING TO ACCEPT! Something to tolerate! This is not the case! There is NOTHING wrong with you. You are PERFECT as you are!

Surgeons offering labiaplasty downplay the severity of labiaplasty surgery. However, this is serious stuff, requiring a multitude of drugs both during and after surgery, and a minimum of eight weeks of recovery time. EIGHT WEEKS where you cannot wear fitted underwear or tight clothes and cannot do vigorous exercise or have sex! You are also on addictive painkillers such as Vicodin! This is a massive trauma for the body. And as everyone knows, or should know, surgeries DO go wrong. This is not a part of your body you should ever be taking any chances with!

I have also read stories of women who underwent labiaplasty surgery because they had such large labia minora that it caused them pain and discomfort, and they were unable to even wear tight pants. This is a completely different issue, and just as with someone having a breast reduction surgery so that they can enjoy sports and become free from back and shoulder pain, I am fully supportive. The issue I am referring to here is women who are having labiaplasty surgery for purely cosmetic purposes, as they believe they are flawed the way they are.

I don't believe you should simply accept yourself the way you are, I believe you need to LOVE yourself the way you are. And to do this, you must take action! Start thinking about your body in positive affirmations. Say things like 'I have a beautiful vagina' or 'I love my vagina'. You can use any cutesy name you tend to call your vagina, whatever works for you. Say this to yourself dozens of times a day and continue to do so until you start to believe it. Along with your affirmations, start behaving as if you love it! Get a full bikini wax, or shave and trim your pubic hair into whatever style appeals to you, you can even get clip-on vaginal jewelery! Get proud of yourself. If you do have a partner who has tended to see things through the lens of Playboy conditioning, then tell him to get with the program or you might have to get with someone a lot more appreciative!

Kamis, 04 Februari 2010

Blackberry 9700 smartphone

Blackberry Gemini - When you’re a company like Research in Motion (RIM) with one cult device called the Blackberry, it takes a lot of imagination to create a BlackBerry diverse product line. Apart from uninspiring experiments with different form factors like a clamshell (Flip) and touchscreen-only (Storm), the company has largely stuck to its bread and butter full-keyboard smartphones.

It has segmented this extremely successful line of devices according to features and price-points into models like the Tour (9630), the Bold (9000) and the Curve (which itself has offshoots like the Javelin and the Gemini). Though, they all had something or the other missing. With the new Bold 9700, nicknamed the ‘Bold 2’ by crackberries (blackberry addicts), RIM seems to have plugged the holes. ET only had the demo-unit for a day, so treat this as a quick first impression rather than a full-blown review.

The 9700 is more like the Tour with the optical trackpad from the Gemini (Curve 8520) and the leather rear from the Bold 9000 thrown in. The exact dimensions and weight suggest that this is indeed the smallest and lightest blackberry ever, but the margin doesn’t make any significant difference. People seemed to either love or hate the faux-leather rear on its predecessor so the 9700 has tried to come half-way with a large leathery panel on the plastic back which slides out to reveal the battery.

Oh! and that’s the other thing inherited from the older Bold — the larger thinner battery than the one powering the Tour and other models. Since we’ve only had the device for a day its tough to back up RIMs claims of a whopping 6 hours of talk time and 21 hours of standby life, but in spite of not having charged the device for more than 24 hours of greater than normal usage, the power meter was still at about 50%, which is fairly impressive. For the first time on a blackberry we see two small, shiny battery contact points on the outside, placed at the bottom of the phone.

One can only suspect that a flurry of “charging docks” are about to hit the market. The one spec where the original Bold scored over the Tour was the 1 GB of internal memory but the 9700 has decided to copy the latter and provide only 256 MB. All the other features of the Tour that were better than the Bold i.e. a high-res 480x360 screen, 3.2 Megapixel camera with flash, soft buttons on the top to mute and lock keyboard etc are included in the new 9700. With WiFi, 3G, GPS and stereo bluetooth, this smartphone doesn’t scrounge on what can now be termed ‘basics’ for smartphones launching in 2010.

The keypad is the same as the one on the Bold and Tour, with all keys touching unlike the individually spaced key layout on the Javelin (8900). The numbers and symbols are all in white unlike the red-white combination that most newer models sport. The optical pad is more dependable than a trackball for long-term wear and tear but still isn’t as accurate.

Selasa, 02 Februari 2010

They Are Just People Too

Oscar Nominations 2010|Oscar Nomination Predictions For 2010 - Every time I go to the supermarket and stand in line to check out I see dozens of magazines or tabloids about celebrities. My question to anyone that buys these magazines or cares what is inside is, why do you care?

Oscar Nominations 2010 - I can understand going to a movie because you are a fan of the star. I personally try to see any movie that Tom Hanks is in because he makes excellent films. I can understand why a person might want to go to a concert to see their favorite musician. There are many examples where a fan could be interested in a celebrity. That is where it should stop though. Why do people care if Nick and Jessica are breaking up? Why do people care what Ben Affleck is doing? If it wasn’t for Matt Damon and “Good Will Hunting” he would be working a construction site like he was in the movie, because he hasn’t made a good movie since.

If my next door neighbor is having trouble with his spouse it is not found all over the magazines and tabloids. Why are “celebrities” personal lives any different? They are not any more important than the rest of us, or are they? It is our hard earned money that makes these people famous in the first place. There are movie stars making $20 million a movie because we buy the tickets. There are drug dealers/gang bangers, making a fortune as rap stars because we buy their CD’s and tickets to see them in concert.

The most unfortunate part of this fascination with celebrities is that more often than not, they are bad influences on younger people and bad examples to society in general. It is very discouraging when you see celebrities rarely being found guilty of crimes because they have high-priced attorneys that get them off. This is not to say they are all guilty but I think there have been cases when a guilty man was set free. Celebrities act as if they are immune to the same laws that apply to the rest of us.

It seems as time passes that people’s priorities become more and more distorted. Instead of focusing our time and energy on people who need it, whether they are sick, homeless, undereducated, or what have you, people spend time and money following the people who need no help from anyone because they can buy all the help they need. Somehow I did not feel bad for Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt when they broke up. Both are very well-off financially, both are very attractive, they had multiple homes together with servants to handle all their needs. Their biggest concern was selling off their main home for $20 million. This is just not reality, but then again, maybe that is the reason people are caught up in their lives. At least the magazines and tabloids that discuss these very wealthy people do serve one purpose, they help to keep the homeless people warm on those artic winter nights.