Pocketburgers.com: Apr 8, 2010

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Navratilova has breast cancer; prognosis excellent

NEW YORK – Tennis great Martina Navratilova has been diagnosed with a noninvasive form of breast cancer and her prognosis is considered excellent.

Navratilova said in a phone interview Wednesday that a routine mammogram in January found a lump, and a biopsy the following month determined it was ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS. The nine-time Wimbledon women's singles champion had a lumpectomy in March and will start six weeks of radiation therapy next month.

"It was such a shock for me," Navratilova said. "It was my 9/11."

According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 50,000 women each year are diagnosed with DCIS, in which abnormal cells haven't left the milk duct to penetrate breast tissue. It's removed because it is a risk factor for developing invasive cancer. Only about 2 percent of DCIS patients die of breast cancer in the next 10 years.

People magazine's Web site first reported Navratilova's diagnosis.

Navratilova said she initially wanted to keep her diagnosis quiet, but decided she could help others by going public. She will do a Web chat Thursday in her role as the AARP's Health and Fitness Ambassador, when she hopes not only to teach participants but to learn from them.

Navratilova plans to work as a commentator for the Tennis Channel during the French Open while undergoing radiation therapy in Paris, and she wants to hear from others whether she'll have the energy to do that.
One of the most accomplished tennis players in history and an outspoken voice for social causes, Navratilova won 59 Grand Slam titles overall, including 18 in singles, 31 in doubles and 10 in mixed doubles. The last was a mixed doubles championship with Bob Bryan at the 2006 U.S. Open, a month shy of Navratilova's 50th birthday.

She originally retired in 1994, with a record 167 singles titles and having spent 331 weeks ranked No. 1. She returned to the tour as a doubles player in 2000 and couldn't resist dabbling in singles, including a first-round victory at Wimbledon in 2004.

Taiwanese Boy, Lin Yu Chun, Sings Whitney Houston Better Than Whitney?

By Steven Avalos

From: http://www.popeater.com/

This guy is amazing!!

Not since Susan Boyle opened her mouth and surprised a global audience with her dulcet tones has there been such a talent as Lin Yu Chun, a contestant on a Taiwanese talent show called 'Super Star Avenue,' which is much like 'American Idol'. Chun destroys all preconceived notions with a powerhouse delivery of Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' that's sure to give you chills. And with Whitney's current illness, there's certainly an opening in the music world for a successor to the ballad throne. Watch his audition and forward to the 1:10 mark (via VideoGum):

Ryanair introduces toilet tax and family tax. Has it gone too far?

Sarah Coles

From: http://www.walletpop.co.uk/

Ryanair is the ultimate test of the power of irritation. The stealth charges, the obnoxious announcements and the cheek with which they consider things like luggage and a sip of water as optional extras people should be forced to pay for. They are enough to bring out the fury in even the most mild-mannered traveller.

However, at the same time, the airline remains competitive - forcing us to choose whether to opt for cheap and cheerless and live with the irritation, or pay more for the flight.

It's a tough call, but Ryanair has just announced new stealth charges which could tip the balance.

It will introduce a charge for using the toilet. It'll cost you £1 or 1 euro to spend a penny, and the toilets will be coin operated. To add insult to injury they are also cutting the number of onboard toilets, to just one. So if you're caught short not only will you have to pay for the privilege of using the loo, but you'll also have to queue with the other 180 odd passengers first.

The charge will be introduced after the summer holiday rush.

This charge particularly rankles, because unlike other stealth charges, like the overpriced food or paying with a credit card, you can hardly avoid paying this tax through taking extra care. You could dehydrate yourself, or bring a small bottle and a blanket, but you run the risk of serious illness or arrest for indecency - neither of which seem worth it in order to save £1.

Ryanair has also announced it will boost the charge for checking in luggage from £15 to £20 during the summer holidays. Spokesman Stephen McNamara said: 'We are determined to incentivise passengers to travel light this summer by increasing our checked-in baggage fees for the months of July and August only."

This is just charming. Clearly the families travelling at this time are the ones who need luggage. You can hardly go away with young kids toting a small handbag and a change of clothes. They'll get through the first change of clothes rolling around the floor in the departure lounge.

So what can you do about it?

Same as always. Shop around for your flights and be sure to factor in all these charges when you do. Then you have a decision to make. Do you live with the irritation in the hunt for a bargain, or do you vote with your feet?

Personally I walked away from Ryanair years ago, opting to fly less rather than allow irritation to destroy the first day of the break, and finish a holiday on a low note. But what do you think? Has it gone too far this time?

Flowchart to Determine if You Should Buy an Ipad

From: http://www.holytaco.com/

The Ipad came out on Saturday, and if you weren't one of the 3 million people standing in line at the Apple store to get one already, then you're probably wondering what all the fuss is about, and whether you should be buying an Ipad, too. Luckily, we've created this flowchart to help you determine if you should buy an Ipad:

Nike Airing New Tiger Woods' Commercial During Masters

By Will Brinson

From: http://backporch.fanhouse.com/

Not many people stood by Tiger Woods as his personal life was falling apart. And even fewer sponsors seemed to be by his side.

Nike, however, can count themselves among the loyal. Which is probably why they're the first sponsor to feature Tiger in a commercial, which will air beginning Wednesday night.

"We support Tiger and his family as he returns to competitive golf," said Nike spokesman Derek Kent. "The ad addresses his time away from the game using the powerful words of his father."

The ad, seen below (via Darren Rovell at CNBC), features Tiger -- in black and white -- staring into the camera with the familiar voice of his father asking questions in a presumably omniscient manner.

Earl Woods says, "Tiger, I am more prone to being inquisitive, to promote discussion," Earl says in the spot. "I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything?"

This isn't the first time Tiger and Nike have used his father in commercials; one of the most awesome displays of marketing came around Father's Day in 2008 when they played Earl's voice over clips of the two practicing golf and some sentimental music (the "You'll never meet someone as mentally tough as you ..." commercial; embedded below the new ad).

The only issue here is that whereas Nike harnessed their ability to market and combined it with a very touching appeal to fathers and sons -- while the appeal to second chances here does make sense, something about the commercial as a whole comes off a tad bit off.

Is it the combination of appealing to the consumer for forgiveness amid a pile of swooshiness all while using Earl's voice? Well, it might be. Having said that, Nike stuck by Tiger throughout this whole sordid mess, so, by all means, advertise away.

And the old one, for comparison's sake:

Toilet Seat Etiquette: Why the Man Is Right

sfweekly.com — Leaving the toilet seat up is simply more efficient

David Cross: 'Arrested Development' Movie "Not Going to Happen"

by Joel Keller
From http://www.tvsquad.com/

David Cross from his special 'David Cross: Bigger and Blackerer'

Fans of 'Arrested Development' might not be too happy with David Cross after they read this interview. Why? Because he has doubts that an 'AD' movie is ever going to come to pass.

"(I)t's not going to happen," Cross told me the other day when I spoke to him about his new stand-up special, 'David Cross: Bigger and Blackerer,' which premieres on the new cable channel Epix on Saturday (Friday night) at midnight ET.

"Way too much time it's been (since the show ended)," he told me. "I mean, there's so many people involved. Everyone's doing their own thing, you know. And everybody's aged. It's just not going to happen. I'm sure I speak for everybody when I say we'd love for it to happen, we'd love to work on it, but just I don't think... not going to happen."

In the special, which Sub Pop will release on DVD in June, Cross talks about all his usual hot points: religion, the health care debate, politics... and airplanes. If you don't get Epix, the channel is providing a free pass to see the special online. The first thing I was curious about: the pre-teen kid who came out and did a piece of his act at the start of the special.

Who was that kid, by the way, that came out at the beginnig of the special, doing a piece of your act?
I have a different kid in each city. And that kid just nailed it, and had this great attitude, and his parents were really cool. So I didn't want to fuck around on the TV taping. We flew him in from, I think he was in Portland. I can't remember exactly which town he was in, but wherever he was, we flew him out from that city. It might have been Chicago, I'm not sure. But we had a different kid in every city.

Do you have to find parents who aren't horrified at the thought of him going out on stage swearing like crazy, or do you just not tell them what he's going to be doing?
I was shocked at how, not only how amenable they were to it, but even just to the point of going "He can say dirtier words if you want them, that's not a problem." Just pushing him. I mean, every town, no matter where we were, there was somebody who was like "Oh, he's very excited, he's been rehearsing it, he keeps calling me c**t...hahahaha." So...

Are you ever concerned, when you have topical references like the health care debate in your standup, how it might age later on?
Definitely. But I get past that with the idea that I don't care, really. And you're welcome to fast forward (past) that part. But you know, it's pertinent now and. certainly when I was doing it in September, it already started to age in a sense, but no, I don't care.

Is there something that happened between then and now, especially as the law was being passed, that when you looked at it, you thought, "Damn it, I wish I had been able to address that in my special?"
Sure, yeah. I mean, there are other aspects to the tea party movement that I would have liked to have addressed. I suppose I made a subconscious decision not to, because I easily could've, but I didn't want either the special or the show itself, the evening, to feel too weighted in one area. You know? I'm more conscious now than I used to be about speaking what I consider self-indulgent with that stuff. You get X amount of time before the audience; it's not about (them) agreeing with you or not, it just goes "Alright, move on."

You mentioned that you're at the age now where just really don't really give a rat's ass about people being on the hard left or the hard right, because America was always like that. What was that moment for you when that happened?
Yes. I guess, I don't know that there was a specific moment, but you know, seeing how the hypocrisy... that's not even the right word... the complete convenient amnesia of what, and for people both on the left and right, what position they had just taken with Bush, whether they were pro-Bush or anti-Bush. And then when Obama got in office, they had just switched.

People who were calling Bush "fascist" and "Hitler" are upset because people are calling Obama "fascist" and "Hitler," when they're both wrong. And people on the right who were saying, "You can't criticize the President during war time..." The fucking second (Obama) took his hand off that Bible, people were going "this guy is the worst guy ever, we need to veto him." He had hardly been in office for five hours. It's just like, you just spent eight years doing the opposite of what you are talking about, and what so upsets you. And that's both left and right.

In my lifetime, Obama is the most optimistic (president). I mean, Clinton, there was optimism there, but not even close to the level that people had with Obama. And then, you know, within, I guess it was three or four months maybe, you're like, "Oh right, he's a politician. All that stuff he was saying, oh he said that to get elected. Ah, I got it, I got it, I got it." At that point, you know, that's where I came to that feeling. There wasn't any like a-ha moment.

When people run into you what part of your career do they remember most?
It really does depend on the demographic. I'd say, though, the most mentioned thing is 'Arrested Development.'

Even more than 'Mr. Show?'
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe not people who come to see me do standup, but as far as people who recognize me and say "Hey, man, you know, you're funny in that thing," it's usually 'Arrested Development.'

How many times have you had to answer questions about the reunion movie at this point, by the way? Including today?
Um, I would guess like somewhere between six and seven hundred times.

Is there anything going on with that at this point?
I think what I will tell you, it's not going to happen. It's not official, but I just don't think it's going to happen. Way too much time it's been (since the show ended). I mean, there's so many people involved. Everyone's doing their own thing, you know. And everybody's aged. It's just not going to happen. I'm sure I speak for everybody when I say we'd love for it to happen, we'd love to work on it, but just I don't think... not going to happen.

Has the buildup for it been so great that it would have been too much for what the results were? This is the most built up reunion I've ever seen on TV.
Yeah. Well, that's the way to do it. It would be great to do it on TV. Like kind of what they do in Britain. If they have a successful show, the comedy shows at least, they'll have a Christmas special. The actors and writers will all get together and you know, create a one-off kind of Christmas special thing.

Like 'The Office' did.
Yeah. I mean, they do that a lot in the UK, you know, with the sitcoms. So like 'The IT Crowd,' 'Gavin and Stacey,' 'Extras,' 'Office,' you know, stick with these Christmas shows. So that would be a good way to do it. I think it would feel odd on a big screen. Anything over 42 inches.

What would feel odd about it on a big screen?
It would just feel, I don't know, it's hard to describe. But it's ah, it would feel strange and foreign to see these characters on a movie theater screen, I think.

So you say you're doing some scripted stuff. What's coming up, besides the standup special and the DVD?
I've got a TV show that I'm developing in the UK called 'The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret' that is going to be airing in the United States on IFC in October.

Right, Will Arnett's in that, correct?
Yes. It's gonna be good. I'm very, very happy with the scripts.

What was the impetus for doing it for British TV first?
I was over there doing standup, and these two women from a company called RDF Media approached me about would I be interested in developing a show, either by myself to co-wrote with a UK writer, or to develop it with a UK writer to do for the UK that eventually might be able to be sold as well to the States. So it was their idea.

Are you writing towards a British sensibility, or are you just writing toward your sensibility?
Mine!

Just yours only. Do you think it'll translate just fine, is what you're basically, what you're thinking?
Well, I'm writing with an English writer named Shawn Pye, so we're writing it together. I basically kind of wrote most of the Pilot, but he's, you know, from, which we're reshooting most of. So we basically have co-written this whole thing.

What’s Happened With Cell Phones This Decade?

From: http://cellphones.org/
Posted by: admin

Via: Cell Phones

Wet And Wild: 10 Bizarre Public Water Fountains

By Steve

From: http://weburbanist.com/

Water fountains are a unique art form combining sculpture, engineering, and more than a little imagination. While the world’s most famous fountains are a delight to the senses, others range from weird to wild to downright bizarre… like the ten described here. Now, let us spray.

Bodily Functions Fountain, London

(images via: Henan Museum and Kattaka)

Klaus Weber’s unusual (to say the least) fountain installation titled “The Big Giving” is at least eco-friendly: the water is continually recycled and the cocoon-like encrustations that envelope the statuesque sculptures are made from waste stone and industrial waste. This most unusual fountain was set up at the Southbank Centre in London, UK, and the images depicted here date from the autumn of 2007.

(image via: Trendhunter)

Though the vomiting individual is usually featured in reports on Weber’s creation, it actually includes a group of different figures displaying a variety of human bodily functions including sweating copiously from the armpits, urinating, and one poor fellow who suffers from the world’s worst post-nasal drip. The statues were modeled on Weber himself and a few selected friends.

Samson & The Lion, Prague

(images via: Tickets of Russia and eBay)

Rastrelli’s iconic scene of Samson wresting open the jaws of a lion has been a popular subject of both statuary and fountains for many centuries. One of most famous examples is in St. Petersburg, Russia, as part of The Great Cascade.

(image via: Jez & TZ)

Another classic Samson & the Lion fountain can be found near Prague Castle in the Czech Republic’s capitol city, but something’s not quite right… could be the angle of the spray, might be a water pressure issue, or maybe it’s just me.

Jeanneke Pis, Brussels

(images via: Budget Places, Trekearth, Wikimapia and Elmada)

One of the most famous “odd” fountains in the world is the Manneken Pis in Brussels, Belgium. Designed by Jerome Duquesnoy and erected (sorry) in approximately 1619, it replaced a similar peeing-boy fountain that dated back to 1388. You’d think the weight of over 600 years of history would be enough to discourage busybodies from messing with tradition but noooo… in 1987 and undoubtedly in the spirit of gender equality, Manneken was given a female counterpart: Jeanneke Pis. The blue limestone sculpture of a peacefully urinating little girl by Denis-Adrien Debouvrie stands – squats, actually – on the east side of Fidelity Alley running north off Rue des Bouchers / Beenhouwersstraat.

(image via: Fotothing)

Rock the boat and you’ll have no end of trouble… as you might have guessed, once feminists were mollified with their own peeing statue, animal rights activists were next in line. The result? Zinneke Pis, the bronzed peeing stray dog, installed in 1998 in the same general area of downtown Brussels as Manneken Pis and Jeanneke Pis. Unlike its perennially propagating predecessors, however, Zinneke Pis has no plumbing and therefore pis-es not.

The Milkmaid of Bologna, Italy

(images via: Bored Panda and Casalingarevival)

Staying in the classical vein a might longer, we have the milking mermaid of Bologna… that’s Bologna, Italy; the fountain’s not made of bologna though that would be only slightly more bizarre.

(image via: Fecalface)

We’re not quite sure what the original artist had in mind here, but suffice to say that in those far-off days, long before Playboy or the Internet, gazing at fountains was pretty much the only game in town for young lads seeking to view erotic content.

Fontana Delle Tette, Italy

(image via: Suite101)

Lest you think Bologna’s boob fountain is a lone aberration, and also because where you find one breast you’re likely to find another, we present the Fontana delle Tette. Located in the old town center of the northeastern Italian city of Treviso, the Fontana delle Tette, or… hey, do we really need to translate?… dates from 1559AD – or by the looks of it, 36C.

(images via: Amb688, Ostaria de la Ombre and Anikita)

Every day is special in Treviso, or so the citizens of centuries past must have wished. The story goes that on designated holidays, victory celebrations, the election of a new mayor, or just for the heck of it, the water which usually spurted out from the statue’s breasts would be replaced by wine: red on the left, white on the right (or vice versa, it didn’t matter much). The fountain would dispense wine for 3 consecutive days and the citizens lapped it up… until boring old Napoleon turned off the taps when he invaded Treviso in 1797.

The Fountain Head(quarters), Austria

(images via: Travel Webshots and The Travelzine)

Looking like either a set from the 1960 film The Time Machine or Dr. Evil’s new lair from the upcoming Austin Powers flick, this huge, troll-like fountain is actually the entrance of the Swarovski headquarters in Wattens, Austria.

(image via: Wikimedia)

The Swarovski Kristallwelten, or Swarovski Crystal World, sits in the Austrian Tyrol like a jewel in a ring. If it looks like a fortress, that’s no accident: In 1892, firm owner Daniel Swarovski shifted the entire company out of Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic) to the wild & woolly Tyrol so that the tools and methods of the secretive company would remain firmly under wraps.

The Car Fountain, Italy

(images via: Oddity Central and Declubz)

The Car Fountain – nothing fancy, just a Seat Ibiza hatchback (a Spanish car) looking like it ran over a fire hydrant. Installed in Rome where there are plenty of cars and fountains – just not in the same space – The Car Fountain was designed by Spanish artist Juan Galdeano and intended to raise awareness about global warming… by, er, raising a car.

(image via: Oddity Central)

The the Spanish hatchback appears as though it’s riding atop a geyser of water, not to worry – there’s a hidden armature secreted within the column of foaming water that keeps the car positioned in place and immune from the vagaries of wind, water and the odd power outage.

Child Eater Fountain, Switzerland

(images via: The Earl of Steinway and Travelpod)

The Kindlifresserbrunnen (Child Eater Fountain, in German) or Ogre Fountain dates from 1544 and is one of many Gothic fountains dating from Bern’s golden age. The ogre that sits atop a tall tower is depicted biting hungrily into the head of a squirming baby while other fearful infants peek out from the bag slung over his shoulder. If anyone wonders why the Swiss are generally quiet, respectful, serious folks, it may be because their parents took them to see (and be traumatized by) the Ogre Fountain when they were young.

(image via: TripAdvisor)

Some say the Ogre Fountain has a somewhat shady origin, referring to its pointed hat – a device sometimes used to portray Jews in the Middle Ages. In any case, today’s tourists and residents of Bern don’t delve into the dark side of the fountain’s history… what they can see is dark and disturbing enough as it is.

Nightmare Fountain, Germany

(image via: Travel Webshots)

We’re calling this the Nightmare Fountain because, well, it fits. Located in Nurnberg, Germany, this surrealistic scene isn’t something most people would associate with serene, relaxing, cooling fountains. Instead we have what appears to be a murder scene frozen in burnished bronze while a giant iguana looks on. If you’re ever in Nurnberg and come across this fountain, throw a coin in… and wish it would go away.

Crown Fountain, USA

(image via: Everything Chicago)

Fountains have historically combined the bizarre and the beautiful, though not always in equal measure. This post has focused on the bizarre but in closing we present the Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park, a larger than life interactive public art exhibition that provides heaping helpings of strange and wonderful. Big it is – the pair of glass block faced, LCD screen backed towers anchor opposing ends of a shallow reflecting/wading pool.

(images via: Ganzel Group, Therese Flanagan, Environment Debate and Manuel Medrano)

Spanish artist Jaume Plensa designed the Crown Fountain to be a tribute to the people of Chicago. The faces that appear to spit streams of water out from the towers are those of 1,000 Chicagoans rotated at random. Though water only flows from mid-spring to mid-fall each year in consideration of Chicago’s often blustery winter weather, the LCD screens are on full time.

The Crown Fountain epitomizes what fountains should be: places of mutual interest that suit and satisfy the public’s need for something curious yet familiar, and if these installations are sometimes weird, strange, even bizarre… well, sometimes so are we.