millbank

NFL to tighten the Screws The NFL has trademark for "The Super Bowl, not with businesses using the term "The Big Game", the NFL wishes to have this Trade Mark as well...... As most people know, the NFL doesn't want you to use the word "Superbowl" when hosting a party, sale, event, etc, and they aggressively enforce their trademark on this term. In response, since all the country does in fact have parties, sales, events, etc. associated with the Superbowl, folks have adopted the euphemism 'the big game" in their communications. I observed that this not only pointed out some of the silliness in our intellectual property laws, but also was counter-productive for the NFL -- shouldn't they want people talking about and holding events for the Superbowl? I suggested a simple licensing program that would raise a little money and probably work better for everyone: The NFL needs to offer a one time use license each year for a bar or other establishment to hold a Superbowl party and actually use Superbowl in the promotion. The license would of course be non-exclusive, and would carry a myriad of restrictions on how you use the name, etc. The license could be purchased for a price that would be cheap for a business, maybe $200, and could be purchased right over the web. It would actually be easier, I think, to go after violators because the NFL could point to the existence of a legal licensing program the violator could easily have participated in. I would think they could easily bring in a couple of million dollars, not to mention saving them enforcement money and PR headaches. The NFL has decided to go in a different direction. It is trying to trademark the term "the big game" so that term can't be used either (HT Overlawyered). I particularly liked this from the application:

Feeley signs for Three with Eagles This should still Donovan's poor beating heart as Garcia will be gone Friday.

I do hope now at least you will have window rolled up enough that your dog cannot jump out window. Not to be wise but it was not a good idea to leave window open wide enough dog could jump out.

The Link in this thread is from last evening.

Peters - Mcgrattan Listened to game with Ottawa announcers, the way they told it Mcgrattan clearly won fight. Heard Buffalo announcers, they claimed Peters did. So watching with a unbiased eye , who did win , either of them. Looked even to me unless you count a take down as a win.

talk about line change. In Ottawa Sun Newspaper today columnist says Let em rumble The Senators should send a strong message to the Sabres tonight. And they should do it with their fists. No need to wait until the second or third period to go after the Sabres' elite players. Do it on the first shift. With a forward line of Brian McGrattan, Chris Neil ... and at centre, Ray Emery. Yep, suit Emery up as a forward to start the game. No need to worry about who wins the faceoff. McGrattan, Neil and Emery will quickly be punching out whatever sacrificial lambs the Sabres send out to start the game -- preferably Tomas Vanek and Daniel Briere, Buffalo's two most gifted players. And while McGrattan, Neil and Emery are cooling their heels for five minutes ... maybe one of them gets tossed for instigating the massacre ... Emery can be changing into his goalie equipment, ready to spell Martin Gerber when the major penalty is up. Crazy? Unprecedented? Far-fetched? Maybe, but Sabres coach Lindy Ruff and the rest of the NHL have to know that the Senators won't be pushed around. At least not like they used to be when fight-fearing Jacques Martin held the reins. also from Ottawa Sun

Lindy Fined $10,000

Senior takes care of Mugger An American tourist who watched as a U.S. military veteran in his 70s used his bare hands to kill an armed assailant in Costa Rica said she thought the attempted robbery was a joke - until the masked attacker held a gun to her head. -note that young people with his bare hands......

Man vs Beast Kobayashi in tough against Kodiak Bear,

Joe puts a shot on George

Thank you Tom. Here is a artist concept of what it will look like..... USS New York

USS New York Bringing together America’s two great calamities of the 21st century, the USS New York is being built in New Orleans with 24 tonnes of steel taken from the collapsed World Trade Centre. There is no shortage of scrap metal in New Orleans these days, but the girders taken from Ground Zero have been treated with a reverence usually accorded to religious relics. After a brief ceremony in 2003, about seven tonnes of steel were melted down and poured into a cast to make the bow section of the ship’s hull. Some shipworkers say the hairs stood up on the backs of their necks the first time they touched it. Others have postponed their retirement so they can be part of the project. One worker, Tony Quaglino, said: “I was going to go in October 2004 after 40 years here, but I put it off when I found out I could be working on New York. This is sacred and it makes me very proud.” Glen Clement, a paint superintendent, said: “Nobody passes by that bow section without knocking on it. Everybody knows what it is made from and what it’s about.” The ship is being built by Northrop Grumman on the banks of the Mississippi. It should be ready to join the US Navy in 2007. Later vessels in its class will include USS Arlington — named after the section of the Pentagon that was also hit by an airliner on September 11 — and USS Somerset, in memory of United Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, on the same day as passengers struggled with al-Qaeda hijackers. Mr Clement said it would be fitting if USS New York’s first mission was to capture Osama bin Laden. He said: “They hit us first, but out of a tragedy a good thing has come, in that we’re building a ship which can help take those people out.” The $1 billion vessel is one of a new generation of amphibious assault ships capable of landing a 700-strong Marines assault force on a coastline almost anywhere without the need for a port - Is anyone aware of how close to completion the USS New York is?

Not confusing, wear the mittens when I go outside and work in barn. Take them off when indoors.

Lined Work Boots 85.00 Lined Overalls 85.00 Cotton Shirt 22.00 Old Hat .50 wool socks 4.00 Warm mitts for outside 5.00

Van Halen Tour not going to happen Over the weekend, employees of tour promoters Live Nation were informed that “the Van Halen tour has been shut down.” It’s not yet clear what went wrong. - perhaps with these guys it will be off again, one again....

More Pacman, $81000 topless dancer promoter took a trash bag full of NFL player Adam "Pacman" Jones' cash and fled the Minxx strip club early Monday, leading to a brawl and shooting that injured three people, one critically, according to a search warrant obtained Wednesday by the Review-Journal. The search warrant, issued Monday in District Court, was for Chris Mitchell's room at the Silverton casino and hotel. Mitchell, who has been interviewed by police, had promoted a four-day event at Minxx for the NBA All-Star weekend. He had brought in dancers from his Houston-based strip club, Harlem Knights, to perform at the 4636 Wynn Road venue, near Tropicana Avenue and Valley View Boulevard. Las Vegas police recovered more than $81,000 in cash from Mitchell's room that investigators believe belonged to Jones, a 23-year-old cornerback for the Tennessee Titans. They also recovered a brown cloth bag and two Breitling watches, but it was not clear who owned those items.

Jills Fly to Iraq "The Jills" are flying to the Middle East to participate in a military camp tour in Kuwait and Iraq. "It's all about bringing a little piece of home to the troops that are there", said Jills cheerleader Emily. "There's a lot of troops there from Buffalo, NY that have been sending us e-mail's and [we're] really pumped up about seeing them as well", said Jills cheerleader Kelli. good for them....

Jason Whitlock Mayhem From Article: The game is a sloppy, boring, half-hearted mess. The dunk contest is contrived and pointless. The celebrity contest is unintended comedy. And, worst of all, All-Star Weekend revelers have transformed the league's midseason exhibition into the new millennium Freaknik, an out-of-control street party that features gunplay, violence, non-stop weed smoke and general mayhem. All weekend, people, especially cab drivers, gossiped about brawls and shootings. You didn't know what to believe because the local newspaper was filled with stories about what a raging success All-Star Weekend was. The city is desperately trying to attract an NBA franchise, and, I guess, there was no reason to let a few bloody bodies get in the way of a cozy relationship with Stern. Plus, the NBA's business partner ESPN didn't have time to dirty its hands and report on the carnage. I'm sure ESPN's reporters were embedded in the rear ends of the troops -- Shaq, Kobe, King James, D-Wade, AI and Melo. But there were multiple brawls, at least two shootings, more than 350 arrests and a lot of terror in Vegas over the weekend. There were so many fights and so many gangbangers and one parking-lot shootout at the MGM Grand that people literally fled the hotel in fear for their safety. I talked with a woman who moved from the MGM to the Luxor because "I couldn't take it. I'll never come back to another All-Star Game." There are reports of a brawl between rappers and police at the Wynn Hotel. Vegas police were simply overwhelmed along The Strip. They were there solely for decoration and to discourage major crimes. Beyond that, they minded their own business. After this weekend, I'm convinced he's losing the battle. All-Star Weekend Vegas screamed that the NBA is aligned too closely with thugs. Stern is going to have to take drastic measures to break that perception/reality. All-Star Weekend can no longer remain the Woodstock for parolees, wannabe rap artists and baby's mamas on tax-refund vacations. This was not a byproduct of the game being held in Vegas. All-Star Weekend has been on this path for the past five or six years. Every year the event becomes more and more a destination for troublemakers. -not your typical sports article. The man certainly states his opinions.

Al Gore causes Frenzy in Toronto He's a former Vice-President of the United States. The movie he inspired, "An Inconvenient Truth", is up for an Oscar. And he's the poster boy for the environment - printed on recycled paper of course. All of which is making Al Gore a hot ticket in Toronto. The American politician came to the U. of T. Wednesday night for a long awaited speech, and there were throngs of fans to greet him. So were ticket scalpers, who are seeing a different type of green all their own. Reports indicate more than 20,000 people were trying to get their hands on a ducat for the event. But there's only room for 1,500 of them inside. What tickets there were originally cost $20. They sold out almost immediately. "We had about 23,000 hits on our website, which of course collapsed the website because we couldn't sustain it," muses the U. of T.'s Ingrid Stefanovic. "So there's been a huge enthusiasm for the event." And not just huge but expensive. The demand was so high that on the Internet auction site Craig's List, people were offering up to $500 for a single pass. And that was too much for one man to resist. "I was going to give it to my colleague for 20 bucks, and I told him, hey, I'm a student," the unnamed audience member relates. "Someone else is giving me $200. He says 'okay, go ahead and sell it for $200.'" "It's like a boy band or something coming to town because people just are clamouring to see Al Gore," laughs Catherine Febria. "It's kind of funny."

Weirdest Drive Thrus

Angry Dad Breaks Up Match

Darn, I thought this was going to be some music

many folks did show up , but apparently it was real....

Britney gets support from surprising source