SPORTSHYPE: Cartoon Haka

A straight rip from No Fat Clips!!! --
Adidas commercial featuring a cartoon version of the AllBlacks' haka...
Adidas "Impossible Is Nothing" at No Fat Clips!!!



Umaga Leads The Haka

MOVIEHYPE: The Mist !!!

Oh yeah!

I remember reading about this some time back, but somehow it slipped off of my radar until now... the trailer has been released for the movie based on one of Stephen King's greatest short stories: The Mist. Judging from the trailer, director Frank Darabont (The Green Mile) and an excellent cast including Thomas Jane, Andre Braugher and Marcia Gay Harden, absolutely nailed it! Put this one at the top of my list!

The Mist at Movie-List Forums
The Trailer for Stephen King's The Mist - ComingSoon.net
The Mist Official Site

POETRYHYPE: Dulce Et Decorum Est

Here's a great poem about the horrors of war. Thankfully, the world hasn't seen chemical warfare on the scale of what Wilfred Owen describes in this work since the Great War.

For more information on the realities of chemical (and biological) warfare, read A Higher Form of Killing... if you can find it in American Libraries libraries nowadays, that is. It wouldn't be surprising if all the copies of this book have vanished off the shelves in our post-9/11 world. If you do find it, you might want to think twice about checking it out or buying it - your name will probably end up on a list.

The latin translation of the old lie: "It is sweet and noble to die for one's country."

John Singer Sargent's painting "Gassed"

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

NEWSHYPE: Order Of The Species

Sometimes there seems to be a little too much bitterness in people. Personally, I know several people with at least 9 figures in the bank, and most of them are constantly pissed off about something. That may have figured into this, but then again, Leona Helmsley may have just been a cunt (by all reports, this is a reasonable assumption).

Gee, I wonder how long it will take for this will to be challenged in court?

(AP Photo/Jennifer Graylock)

Helmsley Dog Gets $12 Million, but Real Estate Billionaire Leaves Nothing to 2 Grandchildren
(Copyright AP, 2007-08-29)

Leona Helmsley's dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley's grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire's estate.

Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.

She also left millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, as well as two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer -- so long as they visit their father's grave site once each calendar year.

Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5 million she left for each.

Helmsley left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer's other children -- Craig and Meegan Panzirer -- for "reasons that are known to them," she wrote.

...

Helmsley died earlier this month at her Connecticut home. She became known as a symbol of 1980s greed and earned the nickname "the Queen of Mean" after her 1988 indictment and subsequent conviction for tax evasion. One employee had quoted her as snarling, "Only the little people pay taxes."

TECHHYPE: Festo's AirMotion Ride

BoingBoing had a post about a robotic arm made by this company, but when I looked into it, this is what I thought was really cool:















Airmotion_ride at Festo.com

I was also intrigued by the listing under Services and Support: Explosion Protection

DUMBHYPE: Miss Teen South Carolina

OK, OK, I'm piling on here, but sheesh...

SPORTSHYPE: The Linebackers

(Above: Willis, Lawson, and Banta-Cain)
It's late and the rum is flowing, so this is the time to predict good things for the Niners. Starting with a serious linebacking corps, the heart of a serious defense, which as we all know, wins championships. Y'all remember the last great Niners defense -- led by some guy named Lott... When they absolutely had to have a stop, you could count on it. Everybody talked about Golden Joe and Jerry Rice and them pretty boys on offense, but when it came down to it, it was the D that made the Niners the team of the 1980s. We can only hope that these new lads can understand the simple poetry in the words: "It's our ball! Take it back!"


Patrick Willis: All-American

POETRYHYPE: The Naulahka

From a guy who knew a thing or two about trying to conquer the Middle East:

The Naulahka

By Rudyard Kipling

There was a strife 'twixt man and maid--
Oh, that was at the birth of time!
But what befell 'twixt man and maid,
Oh, that's beyond the grip of rhyme.
'Twas "Sweet, I must not bide with you,"
And, "Love, I cannot bide alone";
For both were young and both were true.
And both were hard as the nether stone.

Beware the man who's crossed in love;
For pent-up steam must find its vent.
Stand back when he is on the move,
And lend him all the Continent.

Your patience, Sirs. The Devil took me up
To the burned mountain over Sicily
(Fit place for me) and thence I saw my Earth--
(Not all Earth's splendour, 'twas beyond my need--)
And that one spot I love--all Earth to me,
And her I love, my Heaven. What said I?
My love was safe from all the powers of Hell-
For you--e'en you--acquit her of my guilt--
But Sula, nestling by our sail--specked sea,
My city, child of mine, my heart, my home--
Mine and my pride--evil might visit there!
It was for Sula and her naked port,
Prey to the galleys of the Algerine,
Our city Sula, that I drove my price--
For love of Sula and for love of her.
The twain were woven--gold on sackcloth--twined
Past any sundering till God shall judge
The evil and the good.
Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan
brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the
Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of
the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the
East."

There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay
When the artist's hand is potting it.
There is pleasure in the wet, wet lay --
When the poet's pad is blotting it.
There is pleasure in the shine of your picture on the line
At the Royal Acade-my;
But the pleasure felt in these is as chalk to Cheddar cheese
When it comes to a well-made Lie--

To a quite unwreckable Lie,
To a most impeccable Lie!
To a water-right, fire-proof, angle-iron, sunk-hinge, time-lock,
steel-faced Lie!
Not a private handsome Lie,
But a pair-and-brougham Lie,
Not a little-place-at-Tooting, but a country-house-with-shooting
And a ring-fence-deer-park Lie.

When a lover hies abroad
Looking for his love,
Azrael smiling sheathes his sword,
Heaven smiles above.
Earth and sea
His servants be,
And to lesser compass round,
That his love be sooner found!

We meet in an evil land
That is near to the gates of Hell.
I wait for thy command
To serve, to speed or withstand.
And thou sayest I do not well?

Oh Love, the flowers so red
Are only tongues of flame,
The earth is full of the dead,
The new-killed, restless dead.
There is danger beneath and o'erhead,
And I guard thy gates in fear
Of words thou canst not hear,
Of peril and jeopardy,
Of signs thou canst not see--
. And thou sayest 'tis ill that I came?

This I saw when the rites were done,
And the lamps were dead and the Gods alone,
And the grey snake coiled on the altar stone--
Ere I fled from a Fear that I could not see,
And the Gods of the East made mouths at me.

Beat off in our last fight were we?
The greater need to seek the sea.
For Fortune changeth as the moon
To caravel and picaroon.
Then Eastward Ho! or Westward Ho!
Whichever wind may meetest blow.
Our quarry sails on either sea,
Fat prey for such bold lads as we,
And every sun-dried buccaneer
Must hand and reef and watch and steer,
And bear great wrath of sea and sky
Before the plate-ships wallow by.
Now, as our tall bows take the foam,
Let no man turn his heart to home,
Save to desire plunder more
And larger warehouse for his store,
When treasure won from Santos Bay
Shall make our sea-washed village gay.

Because I sought it far from men,
In deserts and alone,
I found it burning overhead,
The jewel of a Throne.

Because I sought--I sought it so
And spent my days to find--
It blazed one moment ere it left
The blacker night behind.

We be the Gods of the East--
Older than all--
Masters of Mourning and Feast--
How shall we fall?

Will they gape for the husks that ye proffer
Or yearn to your song
And we--have we nothing to offer
Who ruled them so long--
In the fume of incense, the clash of the cymbals, the blare of
the conch and the gong?
Over the strife of the schools
Low the day burns--
Back with the kine from the pools
Each one returns
To the life that he knows where the altar-flame glows and the
tulsi is trimmed in the urns.

SPORTSHYPE: The Rise of the SuperHooligan

There's a fascinating article at The Sport Journal on British football "superhooligans":

This process culminated in the emergence in the early 1980s of named ‘superhooligan' gangs such as the ‘Inter City Firm' (ICF) of West Ham United, the ‘Service Crew' of Leeds, and ‘Gooners' of Arsenal, the ‘Bushwhackers' of Millwall, the ‘Baby Squad' of Leicester and the ‘Headhunters' of Chelsea. The ICF can serve as an example. They were one of the first ‘superhooligan' gangs to emerge and they chose their name in order to signify the fact that they pioneered the tactic of eschewing travel on ‘football special' trains wearing club favours, choosing, instead, the regular ‘Inter City' service and what they regarded as ‘smart' but ‘casual' clothing with no club colours in order not to advertise themselves as football fans to the police. These successful tactics spread during the early 1980s until most major crews were practicing similar techniques.
Read More

"Rise of the Foot Soldier" movie

John Blake Publishing - Books on Hooligans, Bare-knuckle fighters, and other "Hard Men"































An amazing book...

POLITICSHYPE: Gonzales The Cannibal

Politics aside, some things are just unacceptable...

ANIMALHYPE: Loose in Atlanta

Today Michael Vick plead guilty to a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge. Michael Vick was the star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons football team. He was accused of horrific cruelty to the dogs who did not "make the cut". In my opinion, he is one of the many young, rich, Americans that feel "entitled" and seem to not be held accountable for their abhorrent behavior. Michael Vick described himself as "immature"...how about vile, cruel and evil? How about feeling so insignificant as a human being that you felt that you needed to prove your strength and prowess by using dogs ripping each other to shreds to demonstrate your power? How about really examining the real reason behind becoming involved in the barbaric "sport" of dogfighting? Instead, we hear that Michael Vick has found Jesus. Convenient. Instead of taking the opportunity to discuss how the young, black men of America have been made to feel so powerless and insignificant that the only way they can develop any self esteem, so vital for survival, is by violence and overpowering others?

Nah, finding Jesus means that all is forgiven and one should not be held accountable. After all, the devil made me do it....

And then this: Orangutan on the loose!....seems that there are wild animals loose in Atlanta.

JUSTPLAINHYPE: Warning!

SPORTSHYPE: Streetball

I can't wait for the Warriors' season to start...


Streetball moves of the NBA

MILITARYHYPE: Unique Glass Eye

From The Raw Feed:

U.S. Marine Nicholas Popaditch was injured in Fallujah, Iraq, and lost his right eye. His replacement prosthetic eye has something the original didn't: the MARINE CORPS EMBLEM.

FOODHYPE: Wild Lemons

They're ugly and huge and the juice-to-peel ratio is much lower than in an "industrial" lemon -- but the juice is sweeter and the price is right.

If you've been paying as much as a buck each for lemons from your local mega-market, you should really stop, and do what I did. I asked my neighbor Bob, on whose property there stands a huge old lemon tree, if he would mind if I harvested a few from time to time. Bob was very agreeable to this idea, and now I stop by every few days and grab some of these monster lemons. They ain't pretty, but they taste great and make the sweetest lemonade you've ever had.

Most neighborhoods around here have someone like Bob, who would be glad if you helped him harvest his lemons. Down with the mega-lemon-growers! Free lemons for the people!

Watch out for the spiders and thorns...

MOVIEHYPE: Alien vs Predator - Requiem

Okay, the first one sucked bad, but the concept has always been workable, and it looks like this time, they're getting it right.

After an age-verification page, check out the horrifically-gruesome red-band trailer at IGN.

Alien vs Predator - Requiem -- Red-Band Trailer

CLOTHESHYPE: Arc'teryx

Once the nuke hits, or the aliens invade, or the giant monster from 1-18-08 attacks, you're going to need tough and comfortable clothing to survive the following months or years. Arc'teryx makes the best heavy-weather gear I've ever worn. Click on the pictures above to check out Altrec's product pages on the women's and men's Theta AR Jacket. In the movie "Vertical Limit", a (highly-recommended) K2-climbing fantasy from 2000, all of the climbers were outfitted in North Face and Patagonia gear, except for Bill Paxton's evil, ruthless billionaire -- he wore Arc'teryx...



Arc'teryx.com
Altrec's Arc'teryx sale page

MOVIEHYPE: Cloverfield (a.k.a. 1-18-08)

From J.J. Abrams, an executive producer of Lost, Alias, and Felicity comes this diabolical teaser.

No one seems to know exactly what the plot is (giant monsters? alien invasion?), but the cinema-verite evocation of a major metropolitan disaster and the reactions of average people caught up in it, that we see in the teaser, are superbly well-done. As the guy says at the end, "it's gonna be the best night ever!"

1-18-08.com

Movie-List Trailer Page

UFOHYPE: UFOs Over Haiti

Check out these state of the art fake UFO videos:

COMEDYHYPE: Zach Galifianakis' Preschool Routine

MUSICHYPE: Curse Ov Dialect

Bury Me Slowly

curseovdialect.com

Check out the "Curse" page for reviews like these:

"... this is certainly some high quality, experimental shit." (Impact Press)

"Sonically, the stew is strewn with spices from every corner of the global bazaar... these Aussies come off like idiot savants, divining hip-hop's destiny as the globe's greatest folk form. From here, the possibilities seem endless again." (Martin Turenne, Urb)

WEBHYPE: Space, Real and Fictional

Two new web applications made their debut this week, affording armchair astronomers fun and fascinating new ways to explore space.



















Google's totally cool Google Earth program, which you should all be familiar with, has turned its view to the heavens with the new Sky add-on. A new button has been added to the menubar allowing you to switch between earth and sky. Once you are looking into space, you can zoom in to highly detailed views which include educational links and high-res images. In the image above, a Hubble Space Telescope image is overlaid on the Great Orion Nebula, and a pop-up gives detailed information. Sky is designed for user-added content, so bookmarks and imagery can proliferate in Google Sky as they do on Google Earth.

Google Earth download

[ Of course, if you want to get deep into space, get Celestia -- I'll post on this later ]


















If the incomprehensible vastness of space as we currently understand it, isn't enough for you, go deeper still, into the universe of imagination, with Galixiki. Taking the Wikipedia concept into space, users who sign up (for free) and become "Galaxicians" can create solar systems, planets and moons. The possibilities are limitless.

Galaxiki homepage

[ Of course, you can do similar things with Celestia -- check out the user-created Death Star add-on -- I'll post on this later ]

POLITICSHYPE: Juan Cole on Bush and Napoleon

Juan Cole has a brilliant piece up on TomDispatch.com comparing Napoleon's 1798 invasion of Egypt to Dubya's Iraq misadventure:

In both eighteenth century Egypt and twenty-first century Iraq, the dreary reality on the ground stood as a reproach to, if not a wicked satire upon, these high-minded pronouncements. The French landed at the port of Alexandria on July 1, 1798. Two and a half weeks later, as the French army advanced along the Nile toward Cairo, a unit of Gen. Jean Reynier's division met opposition from 1,800 villagers, many armed with muskets. Sgt. Charles Francois recalled a typical scene. After scaling the village walls and "firing into those crowds," killing "about 900 men," the French confiscated the villagers' livestock - "camels, donkeys, horses, eggs, cows, sheep" - then "finished burning the rest of the houses, or rather the huts, so as to provide a terrible object lesson to these half-savage and barbarous people."

Pitching the Imperial Republic: Bonaparte and Bush on Deck at Truthout

SPORTSHYPE: Sumo September Tournament

For the first time in four years, the ancient sport of Sumo has two Yokozunas, or Grand Champions.
Asashoryu, on the left, has dominated the sport for years, since the fall of the great Hawaiians, Akebono and Musashimaru, and the brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana. Hakuho, on the right, has just been promoted to Yokozuna.
Sumo has six fifteen-day tournaments (or basho) each year, every other one of which is held in the Ryogoku Kokugikan, the famed Tokyo arena, as is the upcoming one from September 9-23. The Emperor himself often shows up for several days in the latter part of the tournament.

Now there's been some controversy over Asashoryu lately -- he's been accused of feigning injury to avoid a tour; he was caught playing soccer back home in Mongolia... but there's still no one like him in the game today. Check out this compilation of some previous showdowns with Hakuho:


They're the Yokozunas, but these guys might also have a say in who grabs the Emperor's Cup this time around.








































In closing, I'd just like to say to the Sumo Association: I would buy a whole heck of a lot of Sapporo and Hello Kitty merchandise if I could watch these tournaments in a real-time webcast. I'm just sayin'...

Nihon Sumo Kyokai (Japan Sumo Association) English Page
Ticket Information for September Tournament
Banzuke.com (Lots of highlights and history, including a great recipe for Chanko-nabe, the stew the wrestlers eat!)

TRUECRIMEHYPE: Madeleine McCann

There is an amazing thing happening in the world that very few people in the USA are even aware of. On May 3rd 2007, a 3 year old girl vanished from her bed at a resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Her parents and twin brother and sister, who are 2 years old, were vacationing from their home in the United Kingdom. Her parents are doctors, he a cardiac specialist and she a General Practitioner. On that night, the last of the vacation, her parents left the children alone, asleep, in their room, with a door unlocked, to visit a Tapas bar about 135 yards away. They have said that they, along with 7 of their friends, regularly checked on various children from their party, of various ages, most left alone in the rooms. At about 10:00PM it was reported that the mother of Madeleine returned to the room and found her gone...now this is where is gets interesting.

There has been the most incredible barrage of media dis-information about this case in the United Kingdom and in Portugal. There are many blogs from all over the world that post daily about the status of the case. There are numerous threads on numerous forums that speculate and discuss it. These include conspiracy and psychic forums. Simply Google her name and you will see what I mean. It has been over 100 days since she vanished and she is still in the headlines. The level of attention is simply unprecedented. I cannot recall a missing child case that has riveted so many, from so many places around the world, for so long.

There are theories about the Masons, In-Vitro Fertilization gone wrong (she and her sibs were IVF babies), patient revenge, Pedophile rings with worldwide connections, huge government conspiracies, reptillian references (she has a coloboma in her eye), a burglary interrupted, her parents killed her either on purpose or by accident, a member of their party killed her, a local guy snatched her, the resort staff is involved, corruption in the Catholic church and the Portuguese law enforcement community, and others. It is the biggest jumbled up and confused mess that I have ever seen.

I have been following this case closely, mostly because I have young children and the nature of the crime is every parent's worst nightmare. At this point her parents are having to vigorously defend themselves against charges leveled at them from common people (mostly in the UK) and the Portuguese press. While is agreed by almost everyone that leaving the very young children alone was the ultimate betrayal, the speculation and innuendo that have followed has been absolutely amazing, especially because it is mostly based on "gut-instinct" or hearsay. The Portuguese police have very strict secrecy laws and have released very little real information. Suffice it to say, when (or if) this case is solved, it could go down as the Crime of the Century. Only time will tell....



Until then please say a little prayer for that sweet little girl that is deeply missed by so many....

ARTHYPE: The Raft Of The Medusa

From Wikipedia:
The Raft of the Medusa (French: Le Radeau de la Méduse) is a work by the French painter Théodore Géricault, and one of the icons of French Romanticism. An extremely large painting (491 × 717 cm), it was highly controversial at its first appearance in the Salon of 1819, attracting passionate praise and condemnation. The painting depicts the desperate survivors of the French frigate Medusa, which gained notoriety when it struck the Bank of Arguin off the coast of Senegal in 1816, and their first moment of apparent rescue.

Apparent rescue is right -- the suffering of these unfortunates is not yet near an end. And by the time it is over, they have been through one of the great tragedies of seafaring. Read the book, you WILL NOT BELIEVE IT:

Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft

FOODHYPE: La Pinata #3

I don't go out to restaurants much these days, because I can make some mean filet mignon with asparagus, mashed potatoes, and a double scotch or two for one tenth the price I would pay to get some scruffy, low-grade chow at many highly-regarded local eateries. However, I will always make an exception for a joint like La Pinata #3, in Alameda, California, where the staff is fast, friendly and efficient, the food is top quality and served in generous portions, and the tequila is exclusively 100% agave!
I've been a regular for years, but lately the word is getting out, and on almost any night of the week, you will have a short wait to be seated, while prime-time Friday and Saturday, you might wait a half-hour. Call ahead and ask for Octavio or Nick -- they'll put you on the list. Tell them the guys from El Cerrito sent you.









Octavio





In addition to the main restaurant, LP3 boasts a Tequila Bar and a Taco Bar. If your timing is right you might even see an Oakland Raider or a Golden State Warrior -- these guys need to know where to get a good Super Burrito Famoso de Carne Asada or some Enchiladas de Camarones.

They've got five other locations, and I bet they all RULE. Check 'em out.

MAP to LP3

La Pinata Restaurant Home Page

DRUGHYPE: Pentagon's New Drug Weapons

They’ve got Skunk, they’ve got Special K, they’ve got Angel Dust, they’ve got Aceeeeed….and they’ve also got a whole pharmacy of extra special stuff that they’re not going to tell anyone about. They’re heavily armed, and the law can’t touch them. Because they’re the Pentagon’s own nonlethal chemical weapons developers.

Wired Danger Room Blog Post

MOVIEHYPE: Ong-Bak 2

Tony Jaa, the next great Asian action star, is currently in Thailand directing and starring in "Ong-Bak 2", which doesn't seem to have much to do with the original Ong-Bak, but is guaranteed to feature more mind-blowing fight scenes.

According to tonyjaa.org:

Ong-Bak 2 is an action movie and the story is inspired by Khon Dance, a traditional Thai dance. It'll use a new kind of Muay Thai combined to Khon Dance and ancient Thai weapons (including the sword and the spear). This new style of fighting adapted from Khon Dance Performance is called Muay Khon. Jaa says he got the idea after meeting performance artist Pichet Klunchun during the Subhanahongsa Awards ceremony last year. There will be elephants involved in the movie as well, and they will be part of the action.

Read the full story.

And check out some YouTube Tony Jaa action; this guy RULES:


Live onstage


The chase scene from Ong-Bak


Single-take fight scene from Tom Yum Goong (The Protector)

MUSICHYPE: Kanye West

Not your typical rap video...



"Can't Tell Me Nothing" (Alternate Version)

MUSICHYPE: Foo Fighters

A great song from some time back, and a video I had never seen before.

Just one of the many cool things on No fat clips!!!








The Foo Fighters - Everlong

MOVIEHYPE: Scorsese Meets The Stones

Jagger and Scorsese at premiere for "The Departed" in 2006
Pic from IMDB










Variety reports the highly-anticipated Martin Scorsese documentary on the Rolling Stones has had its release date moved from September to April 2008 to allow for more promotion. Now Mick and the boys may be doddering, old, and irrelevant, but Scorsese's definitely got some life left in him. His other "rock and roll" movie was the epic "The Last Waltz" starring a great Band that knew when to hang it up.

Movie-List Trailer Page for "Shine A Light"

SURFHYPE: God will surf with the devil, if the waves are good

[Copyright AP 070822]
An 86-year-old Jewish surfing guru from Hawaii donated on Tuesday 12 surfboards to Gaza's small surfing community, in a gesture he hoped would get Israelis and Palestinians catching the same peace wave.

"God will surf with the devil, if the waves are good," retired doctor Dorian Paskowitz said Tuesday. "When a surfer sees another surfer with a board, he can't help but say something that brings them together."

Paskowitz emerged shirtless at the Israel-Gaza crossing after handing over the dozen boards to Gazan surfers waiting on the other side. He said he was spurred into action after reading a story about two Gaza surfers who couldn't enjoy the wild waves off the coast because they had only one board to share between them. Arthur Rashkovan, a 28-year-old surfer from Tel Aviv, said Paskowitz's project was part of a larger effort called Surfing for Peace, aimed at bringing Middle East surfers closer together. He said eight-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater, who is of Syrian descent, is expected to arrive in Israel in October to take part in the drive.

Paskowitz, whom Rashkovan called a 'guru' to Israeli surfers, has surfed in Israel several times over the past five decades.

Paskowitz, a father of nine, served in the Navy during World War II, practiced family medicine for more than half a century and has published books on surfing and health. He said he's surfed for 75 years, in locations all over the world, and ranks the waves off the coasts of Israel and Gaza as among the world's best.

"It's really quite remarkable how good they are for modern surfing," he said.

FASHIONHYPE: The Derriere Cam

Jeans. Pants. They are very hard to shop for especially when you are all by yourself. No one can give you the perspective of how your behind looks. Let's face it, everybody wants to look good when they leave the room ... Enter the Butt Cam from HUB Clothing in Scottsdale, Arizona.

According to Hub Clothing Partner Tom Simon it makes shopping for pants less painless. It seems to have clicked with consumers; sales of jeans for the store have gone up since the installation of the camera. For the shy ones, do not worry. They are not recording it yet. But for the bold ones, "We're even thinking of doing a best of and putting it on DVD for the year, 'Best Butts of '08' or whatever, yeah," Simon says.

LINK

SPORTSHYPE: Football For Real Men

Never mind the pads - they're for the wags (wives and girlfriends). Check out some of the best recent rugby highlights right here:

Rugby Dump

A sample of what you can find on this site:

COMEDYHYPE: Louis CK

Most recently, Louis CK cowrote with Chris Rock Rock's new movie, "I Think I Love My Wife", which is worth watching. He also directed the cult favorite "Pootie Tang", also starring Rock, apparently a good friend of his. Additionally, he has written and directed numerous short films. But where Louis CK really shines is onstage, before a live audience. This guy is one of the funniest standup comics I've ever seen, with the instinctive timing and hint of genuine madness that defines the true greats of the field. It amazes me that I saw him recently at a small comedy club here in town. This guy should be drawing thousands whenever he plays live. His HBO special was called "Shameless", and that pretty much says it, and it's probably his willingness to go to extremes that keeps him from greater popularity. If you have the intestinal fortitude to laugh while those around you are throwing up or praying to God, you are in for a truly great comedic experience.




LouisCK.com
LouisCK's Youtube channel

SHOESHYPE: Nike Jumpman Jeter Vital

These shoes rock -- they contain an internal "sleeve" that holds your heel in place, and I dig the simple but bold design. But nothing I say can tell you more than these comments from MyAirShoes.com commentators:

1. lil clint Says:
   

   dumb wat numba 1 said dem junks is hard im go get some and roc dem junks all da time so u already kno u already slo.check ya boi.

2. Senor Paricutin Says:
   

   i know that and im freakin 13

3. Senor Paricutin Says:
   

   i definetly gettin some
   

Like I said -- check 'em out. Plus they come in six different color schemes. I already bought twelve pair.

Jumpman Jeter Vital at MyAirShoes.com
(I would've linked to the Nike.com product page, but that site is straight wack, yo, all Flash and shit)

Oh yeah, and on the sole there's a picture of Jeter and the words "Respect is earned when no one is looking."

MUSICHYPE: Djamel Laroussi

I highly recommend this Algerian artist's new album, 3 Marabouts. Especially well done is the song Kifach Hilti, which reached #1 on the Algerian charts recently. It's a guitar and vocal piece in Arabic and finished off in French. Lyrics are being sought now (along with a translation).

Link: http://www.djamellaroussi.com/index_en.html

If you object to good music because it happens to come from a North African country where the major language is Arabic, then you're an idiot. There's a boatload of great tunes from that part of the world.


Maal Ma

DRUGHYPE: They're Sampling You Indirectly

From the "we'll tell you what to say" department... and remember, it's 'less offensive than individualized testing.'

I sure would like to see the thematic maps that result from this. You'd have to do some serious analytical work to convert data gathered by the wastewater collection districts to something more commonly used (e.g. city or county), but either way it would be pretty interesting. How about a correlation with ATM withdrawals too? That's probably pretty high.

Scientists drug-test whole cities

(Copyright AP, 2007-08-21)

Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city's sewer plant.

The test wouldn't be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country.

Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking.

"It's a community urinalysis," said Caleb Banta-Green, a University of Washington drug abuse researcher who was part of the Oregon State team. The scientists presented their results Tuesday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.

Two federal agencies have taken samples from U.S. waterways to see if drug testing a whole city is doable, but they haven't gotten as far as the Oregon researchers.

One of the early results of the new study showed big differences in methamphetamine use city to city. One urban area with a gambling industry had meth levels more than five times higher than other cities. Yet methamphetamine levels were virtually nonexistent in some smaller Midwestern locales, said Jennifer Field, the lead researcher and a professor of environmental toxicology at Oregon State.

The ingredient Americans consume and excrete the most was caffeine, Field said.

Cities in the experiment ranged from 17,000 to 600,000 in population, but Field declined to identify them, saying that could harm her relationship with the sewage plant operators.

She plans to start a survey for drugs in the wastewater of at least 40 Oregon communities.

The science behind the testing is simple. Nearly every drug — legal and illicit — that people take leaves the body. That waste goes into toilets and then into wastewater treatment plants.

"Wastewater facilities are wonderful places to understand what humans consume and excrete," Field said.

In the study presented Tuesday, one teaspoon of untreated sewage water from each of the cities was tested for 15 different drugs. Field said researchers can't calculate how many people in a town are using drugs.

She said that one fairly affluent community scored low for illicit drugs except for cocaine. Cocaine and ecstasy tended to peak on weekends and drop on weekdays, she said, while methamphetamine and prescription drugs were steady throughout the week.

Field said her study suggests that a key tool currently used by drug abuse researchers — self-reported drug questionnaires — underestimates drug use.

"We have so few indicators of current use," said Jane Maxwell of the Addiction Research Institute at the University of Texas, who wasn't part of the study. "This could be a very interesting new indicator."

David Murray, chief scientist for U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the idea interests his agency.

Murray said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is testing federal wastewater samples just to see if that's a good method for monitoring drug use. But he didn't know how many tests were conducted or where.

The EPA will "flush out the details" on testing, Benjamin Grumbles joked. The EPA assistant administrator said the agency is already looking at the problem of potential harm to rivers and lakes from legal pharmaceuticals.

The idea of testing on a citywide basis for drugs makes sense, as long as it doesn't violate people's privacy, said Tom Angell of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a Washington-based group that wants looser drug laws.

"This seems to be less offensive than individualized testing," he said.

FAMILYHYPE: 3 Day vacation

Summer is drawing to a close and the kids will return to the daily educational grind next week. Hubby and I were thinking..."we should take a short vacation". It has been a very busy year for us and the weather unbearably hot so we have been home (in the conditioned air) all summer. A quick trip over to Utah to visit some extended family seemed like just the tonic we needed. It would be a road trip, 8 hours in the car, leaving at 4:30AM! Sometimes our vacations seem more like work.

While were were visiting the Great Salt Lake we found a little tourist destination called Antelope Island which looked like fun so, off we went. A drive along a 2 mile causeway was the funniest part of our entire trip as we tried to explain how the kids needed to just "plug your nose and breathe through your mouth". Once on the island we drove another couple of miles and found...Bison!! Just like out on the plains only they were walking across the paved road in front of our car. They made snorting sounds and stared at us, looking like they would charge us any second. They especially did not appreciate us yelling out the window "hi, little buffalo" to their babies.




We felt very happy to see that these Bison had been moved to this animal sanctuary so that people could take a short drive to see these magnificent animals just as the plains indians had seen them hundreds of years ago. We explained the idea of preservation of endangered species to the kids, hoping to impress upon them the importance of environmental protection.

Imagine our surprise as we checked the lunch menu for the small cafe on the island:



Well, we tried....

TVHYPE: Fall 2007 -- Two Maybes And A Definitely

The Fall television season is close at hand, and for such an obsolete technology, a lot of energy and attention is still going into and out of it. I probably won't see any of these until they are released on DVD, because I can't stand someone trying to sell me something while I'm trying to follow a story, and if I want to whomp up some guacamole, I don't want to be looking over my shoulder to make sure I don't miss anything. So until a new age of enlightenment brings us high-resolution, downloadable, non-DRM media at a reasonable price (don't hold your breath), I'll be waiting for DVDs (which of course will force me to sit through a brief warning from the FBI every time I put them in the player). Hey studios -- excellent way to dilute the hype!





Heroes 2nd Season premieres Sept 24
The first season was excellent: surprising, funny, suspenseful and exciting. Good actors and a good storyline. The concept leaves it wide open for creator Tim Kring to go in any number of promising directions. Hopefully, season two will be just as well thought out.





Prison Break 3rd Season begins Sept 17
The first season was brilliant, cliffhanger after cliffhanger after cliffhanger. After every episode we were asking "How the hell will they get out of that?" And the whole season ended the same way, leaving you eager for the second season. Unfortunately, once out of prison, some of the tension seemed to ease, and some of the plot points and action began to verge on the wildly implausible. The cast is great though, and I'm rooting for "Prison Break" to get over its sophomore slump.






The Wire 5th Season Feb 3 or Feb 10 2008
Those two are TV in its standard format, built for advertising, shying away from anything too controversial or challenging. This is something completely beyond. Simply put, the best show on television bar none. Even The Sopranos could never match the level of complexity, reality and narrative drive that The Wire seems to achieve without effort. If you haven't seen it (and way too many people haven't) get season one on DVD now -- by the time the fifth season starts in February, you can probably be caught up.

CLOTHESHYPE: AllBlacks Jersey

The dog days of summer are here -- soon the leaves will fall and the kids will get locked up in school, and the sky will go grey and drizzly... so when you're huddled in the chilly den, listening to My Chemical Romance, be comfortable with a classic:




















All Blacks Style LS Rugby Jersey

Or if you can't bring yourself to support those damn Kiwis (they are after all like the Yankees of rugby):

World Rugby Shop