| Reshaped Braves aim toward spring training
Isn't FW considering getting a righty to back up Kotsay, like Raji Davis in San Fran? Also, isn't he trying to get more righty power in the OF, like Juan Rivera with the Angels, who's trade value should be very low right now. Thanks for your reply, Hammy the Brave .
Yahoo in early talks with major labels over possible MP3-based music ...
Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp., and EMI Group PLC have in recent months begun licensing their music for sale as MP3 files online through retailers like Amazon.com. Unlike music files that come with copy protections embedded, MP3 files are compatible with most portable music devices, including Apple Inc.'s market-leading iPod media players, Microsoft Corp.'s Zune and mobile phones that play music. Carrie Davis, a spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, said the company has often said it wants to offer music without copy protections and the subject has been part of its ongoing talks with record labels. But Davis denied that discussions with record labels on the matter have stepped up in recent weeks or that anything is imminent. Representatives for the labels declined to comment.
Monday wild card
I try to keep up with the blog, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend to know what I'm talking about when it comes to Gozzer Ranch yacht wars or Marty Fortier. I'm doing this in addition to other work, so I'm not able to spend much time crusing around looking for things to post. And so - your help this week is crucial to keeping the blog flowing. Don't be shy about suggesting items to post, and please don't worry about insulting my intelligence or whatever by explaining at length why a particular post is noteworthy. This is your community, after all. Drop me a line at kenp@spokesman.com. Portrait of DFO courtesty of Brodh2o. .
Why Warne was never captain
THE seven deadly sins that scuttled Shane Warne's hopes of ever becoming captain of the Australian cricket team have finally been revealed. In the words of one former Cricket Australia director, the trouble-prone champion leg-spinner "sooner or later . . . would always let you down". Despite that, the holder of the world record for Test wickets remains in demand. CA directors are meeting today to decide, among other things, if there is a suitable coaching or promotional job they can offer Warne with a view to using his expertise in spin bowling to unearth future exponents of the art. The ambivalence with which the men who run the game view Warne is detailed in the first officially sanctioned history of Cricket Australia, the governing body, since 1905.
Impact of landfill referendum unclear as Election Day nears
But with an advisory referendum facing county residents in less than two weeks, officials with stakes in both sides of the question are campaigning for votes even though the outcome may have little effect on whether toxic chemicals will be permitted to be stored at the Clinton Landfill on the city's southwestern edge.Last fall, the DeWitt County Board approved an amendment to the host agreement with the Peoria Disposal Co., owners of the Clinton Landfill. That agreement set the amount paid to the county by PDC based on the waste volume deposited at the facility's landfill.“It is, potentially, the most lucrative (agreement) of its kind in the state of Illinois on a per-ton basis and may generate between $25 (million) and $36 million over the next 24 years even before applying built-in inflation adjustments and without raising taxes on DeWitt County residents," said board member Levi Sturgeon.In addition to approving the amendment, the board unanimously supported the plan for the landfill owners to move forward with a permit to store wastes with a concentration of greater than 50 parts per million of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, which are a blend of chemical compounds used in a variety of industrial products.Following that vote, Clinton resident Matt Varble formed WATCH (We're Against Toxic Chemicals), a group to oppose the portion of the plan to store chemical wastes in DeWitt County.
01-22-08 EUR ALL ON ONE PAGE
EDDIE MURPHY EARNS MULTIPLE RAZZIE NODS: "Norbit" singled out by annual celebration of year's worst films and performances. *Eddie Murphy has joined Halle Berry in the rare class of actors who have received nominations for both an Academy Award, honoring the best in film, and a Razzie Award, which "rewards" the year's worst.
Berry was a winner at both ceremonies – earning a best actress Oscar for "Monster's Ball" in 2002 and a worst actress Razzie three years later for "Catwoman."
While Murphy was unable to bag the supporting actor Oscar for "Dreamgirls" last year, chances are good that he'll take home at least one of eight Razzie nominations for his 2007 fiasco "Norbit."
Murphy alone received five Razzie nods, more than anyone has ever gotten in a single year. Besides worst picture, "Norbit" had nominations for Murphy as worst actor in the title role, supporting actress as Norbit's morbidly-obese wife, supporting actor as an Asian man and worst screen couple for Norbit opposite either of Murphy's other characters.
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The red planet Mars is becoming prominent in the night sky. It is already brighter than most of the stars, and is of course very red, which is why it was named in honour of the God of War. It is a small world, only just over 4000 miles in diameter, and further away from the Sun, so that it is a cold pIace – but it is less unlike the Earth than any other planet, and it has always been regarded as a possibIe abode of life. And at the moment a new space craft, Phoenix, is winging its way there.By now many probes have been to Mars. Some have passed by, others have entered orbit round the planet, and several have landed there, NASA's rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been crawling happily around, sending back amazing pictures as well as data. We know much more about Mars now than we did a few years ago, but one thing we do not know is there any life on Mars – and if not, have living things ever existed there? Perhaps Phoenix will tell us. We are quite sure that there is no intelligent life, and indeed intelligence does not exist anywhere in the Solar System except (possibly) on the Earth, Percival Lowell's brilliant, canal-building Martian engineers belong to fiction, not to fact.
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