08 Jun Dan Abrams’ Web Properties Today
From Mediaite: Friday afternoon, the story of an army sergeant and marching band member whose superior officer apparently told him to stop reading books Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and David Limbaugh while on the bus to concerts. Mediaite reports “Eric Bolling kicked off the segment by defending Sgt. Nathan Sommers against the “disheartening and dangerous” trend of political correctness in the military. ‘This is outrageous,’ Kimberly Guilfoyle said, before somehow linking the incident to President Obama. ‘These soldiers and troops are fighting for our freedom every day, and President Obama is stripping them of their freedoms, telling them that they can’t read this or they can’t look at these materials. This is his administration.’ Read on here.
From Gossip Cop: Who sent the ricin letters to the president? Gossip Cop reports, “Shannon Richardson, an actress who has appeared on “The Walking Dead” and “The Vampire Diaries,” was reportedly arrested on Friday in connection with the ricin-laced letters recently sent to President Obama and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Texas resident, alternately known as Shannon Rogers Guess, had initially contacted law enforcement authorities last month to claim that her husband, an army vet named Nathan Richardson, had mailed the toxic correspondence to the political leaders.” Read on here.
From Geekosystem: How will games work on the new Xbox One? There has been a lot of speculation about the constant connectivity and inability to play used or borrowed games. Explains Geekosystem, “First, the easy one. The ‘not always on’ Xbox One is kind of always on. While it won’t require a persistent connection, the console will always be looking for new updates for itself and your games while humming away in a low-power mode. And while you can play single player games offline, there will be a 24-hour limit on doing so before you have to check in online to establish that you are who you say you are. Now for the more complicated matter of buying and selling used games, which will be registered to your account under the coming glorious Xbox One regime.” Read on here.
From Styleite: It’s nature for humans to constantly evolve, but what will we look like in the future? Researchers speculate that the size of our eyes will constantly expand. Styleite reports, “Artist and researcher Nickolay Lamm has illustrated what humans might look like in the future, with the help of Dr. Alan Kwan, a computational geneticist from Washington University. Lamm says the drawings are based on “one possible timeline,” in which humans control biology to suit our needs — an idea that is only half as frightening as the resulting imagery. Basically, humans are going to look like Princess Jasmine mixed with a Tim Burton character. Which is to say, our eyes are going to be freaking huge, but we’ll have a decent tan. Kwan predicts the human head will become larger to accommodate a larger brain (yes, getting more smarts!), which will lead to what we will call a Rihannaisation of humankind. Evolutionary downside: unfortunately large foreheads. Styling solution? Bangs.” Read on here.
From SportsGrid: A lesson well learned: When ordering weed, it is not a smart idea to pin the blame on your dog. SportsGrid‘s Rick Chandler explains, “The notion that pot makes you mellow was pretty much disproven back in August when Indians closer Chris Perez cursed out this heckler. At least we know that now, in hindsight. Perez and his wife, Melanie, were charged with misdemeanor drug abuse after an undercover police officer delivered a package of marijuana addressed to Perez’s rental home. U.S. Postal Inspectors and police then searched the home, in Rockey River, Ohio, and the couple were charged.Police say they found “numerous drug paraphernalia and suspected marijuana” in the home, plus a metal marijuana grinder. The couple were released and a hearing is schedule for June 19.” Read on here.
From The Mary Sue: No longer do movies have to wait to reach the box office to know how well they will do. Google has done a study that could lead the companies expectations on their movies. Explains The Mary Sue, “The study suggests that, with Google searches for movies on the rise (up 56% despite a 9% decline in the overall number of movies out in from 2011 to 2012) Google has the data to predict, even with 94% accuracy, how much a movie will gross at the box office. The calculations are based on a number of types of searches, from trailers to reviews to the number of queries on a specific movie leading up to its release. This study could show companies what to do to keep their movies in our minds before and during opening week, and is also quite a significant indicator of how much we rely on Google for our entertainment choices.” Read on here.
From The Jane Dough: You’re truly in a predicament if an escort that you paid to escort you, doesn’t wish to sleep with you. Texas is at it again. The Jane Dough‘s Grace Rasmus reports, “Just yesterday we were so proud of you for being on track to mandate paid parental leave in Austin but I’m officially revoking that pride now because just an hour and a half downstate in Bexar County a jury decided it is perfectly fine to shoot an escort if she won’t have sex with you. On Christmas Eve 2009, Ezekiel Gilbert shot 23-year-old Ivie Frago, a Craigslist escort, while attempting to retrieve the $150 he’d paid her. Frago was rendered paralyzed and later died from her injuries. Despite admitting that the shooting occured, Gilbert was acquitted of all charges.” Read on here.
From The Braiser: Have we all already forgotten or forgiven BP for the oil spill a few years ago? Emeril surely has. Tina Nguyen of The Braiser reports, “Midway through the super double secret filming of Top Chef: New Orleans, Emeril Lagasse took some time out of his production schedule to pump up the Times-Picayune with hot, juicy Magical Elves gossip, which he can’t actually tell anyone, because of nondisclosure stuff. But he can talk lovingly about being back in New Orleans, where he got his break as the chef of the legendary Commander’s Palace, and how he’s glad that BP’s taking responsibility for their accidental destruction of the Gulf Coast back in 2010. Say what now? Weren’t we all supposed to be furious about the fact that Bravo accepted a BP-funded sponsorship from the State of Louisiana?” Read on here.