zaprl.com

This is the night that ABC decided to debut “I Survived a Japanese Game Show.” Why not team it with another new summer reality entry, ABC programmers evidently thought. So the network coupled it with the premiere of “Wipeout.”
NBC, which just launched “America’s Got Talent,” wasn’t going to be left out of the crowd, so it has moved up the start of “Celebrity Family Feud” to tonight.
Not to be outdone, Fox, instead of launching a game show, pulled one. It yanked “Moment of Truth” off the air, probably because it was trending down in the ratings. It added an extra new edition of “Hell’s Kitchen,” a reality show at 9 that has been red-hot in the ratings.
That means that eight of the 13 hours of prime-time programming on five broadcast networks tonight are game/reality shows. Of course, if you add in all the cable channels, there are almost more programs in that category than you can count. Choose your poison.
Tonight’s new entries include:
“I Survived a Japanese Game Show,” at 9 on ABC, consists of segments such as “Why Is This Food So Hard to Eat?” Answer: Because it’s attached to the head of a teammate running on a treadmill. Oh what fun!
Another challenge is hoisting a teammate on a crane as he or she tries to grab as many fluffy animals as possible from a giant box. A smaller version of that in a glass cubicle has been playing in restaurant lobbies and carnivals since caveman days.
Or, how about “Chicken Butt Scramble”? That finds people willing to dress up in chicken suits crushing eggs with their behinds. The kids on “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” should feel right at home watching their elders make fools of themselves on this stupid human tricks show.

courier-journal.com

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has collected — and kept — more than $1 million in the past three years from airline passengers who forgot coins at checkpoints. Passengers must take change out of their pockets and drop it in plastic bins that go through X-ray machines, but tens of thousands of people each year forget to reclaim it. The TSA has been keeping change since October 2004 when it lobbied Congress to let the agency use the money to defray security costs. The cash leader: Los Angeles International Airport, where passengers left behind $89,375 from Sept. 30, 2004 to Oct. 1, 2007, according to TSA reports.
Clever climber rescued
An injured U.S. hiker stranded in the Bavarian Alps for nearly three days was rescued after using her sports bra as a signal, police in southern Germany said Monday. Berchtesgaden police officer Lorenz Rasp said he helped lift Jessica Bruinsma, 24, of Colorado, to safety Thursday after she attracted the attention of lumberjacks by attaching her sports bra to a cable used to move timber down the mountain. “She’s a very smart girl, and she acted very resourcefully,” Rasp said. “She kept her shirt and jacket for warmth but thought the sports bra could work as a signal.”
Elvis photo destroyed
The original photo of the famous National Enquirer picture of Elvis Presley lying in his open casket in 1977 was shredded during a six-year anthrax-decontamination effort on the tabloid’s former Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters, according to a federal lawsuit. The photo, valued at $1 million, is the center of a dispute between Boca Raton developer David Rustine, who bought the contaminated building in 2003, and John Y. Mason, whose company, Sabre, was hired to decontaminate it. The Enquirer had paid one of Presley’s cousins $18,000 to secretly take the snapshot.

seattletimes.nwsource.com

Two words for you.
Even though you didn’t get to meet Tom, you still got to hang out with the foodies.
Still, I guess I appreciate you allowing me to live vicariously through you. Keep up the good work.

blogs.mediapost.com

Gumby the Movie was created as the first part in a series to celebrate the little green man of clay. The film centers around Gumby reuniting the Clayboys to play a concert benefit for local farmers. The evil Blockheads have used the event as a way to kidnap Gumby’s dog Lowbelly. Lowbelly cries pearls and the Blockheads want to sell the pearls to make a little folding money. Thus, our claymation adventure begins.
Art Clokey created the little green guy almost fifty years ago as a special segment for The Howdy Doody Show . The problem was that Gumby and his clay friends never left that era. Taking several years following the end of The New Gumby Adventures , this film hit theaters in 1995. A limited run it might have had, Gumby the Movie has sparked an almost cult following among animation fans. Being one, I can attest to the low quality of some of the shit we pine after.
On one hand, you can assume that I took my medication today. On the other hand, you can assume that Satan is telling me use your lower GI tract for dental floss.
Gumby the Movie or Gumby 1 was supposed to be the launch of a new era of Gumby. But, the film flopped and we’re left with nostalgic memories of a little green dude exclaiming Holy Toledo about every calamity coming his way. I was watching this film with a younger relative and they asked me if anyone was ever stupid enough to like this. That little nugget got me thinking about the film. Is it stupid or is it simple? There is a difference.
Looking at the structure of the film, it appears chaotic. Twenty minutes flies by before we start sliding into anything resembling a plot. The nature of the action breaks and the stretching of material seem to suggest that Clokey only crafted a 30 minute tale and was forced to stretch for normal theatrical running time. This comes into play when you have to wait twenty minutes for an ending that should’ve been three minutes long at best. There’s a story here and I eagerly await hearing about it from a Clokey fan.

chud.com

Kimi Raikkonen captured the pole for the Grand Prix of France yesterday.
Raikkonen running first gave Ferrari its 200th pole in Formula One history - the first in 1951 at Silverstone by Froilan Gonzalez -with Brazilian Felipe Massa completing an all-red front row for today’s race (7:30 a.m., TSN, RDS).
While Raikkonen secured a spot on the front row, Lewis Hamilton’s 10-place grid penalty will see him start from 13th on the grid. Hamilton could only manage third-fastest overall in his McLaren and his punishment for running into the back of Raikkonen’s Ferrari in the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago meant he was demoted to midfield at Circuit de Nevers.
Hamilton had stated in the build-up to the race he could win from such a lowly position, but in truth the odds are stacked high against him.
In F1 history, only 24 of 792 races have been won from 11th place or lower, while none has taken the checkered flag at Magny Cours from a similar position since the first grand prix at this circuit in 1991.
World championship leader Robert Kubica, who won at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, is only sixth on the grid, with Renault’s Fernando Alonso ahead of him in third, while Toyota’s Jarno Trulli is fourth. Heikki Kovalainen took fifth in his McLaren.
Behind the pole are the Red Bull duo of Mark Webber and David Coulthard in seventh and eighth, with Toyota’s Timo Glock ninth and Renault’s Nelson Piquet completing the top 10.
Nick Heidfeld will start 11th after finding himself out-qualified by BMW Sauber teammate Kubica for the eighth time in eight races this season.
Rainout gives Dixon Indy pole: Reigning Indy 500 champion Scott Dixon was awarded the pole for today’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 after qualifying was cancelled because of rain. The 24-car field was set based on entrant points.

canada.com

The Fourth of July! This unique, and perhaps most popular, American holiday conjures up visions of fireworks, political speeches, baseball games and backyard barbecues.
This holiday provides an opportunity for Americans to express our patriotism, celebrate what is good about this country and redouble our efforts to fix what is not.
For example, whether one is Republican, Democrat or Independent, we should take pride in knowing an African-American will be nominated by a major American political party for the presidency only 45 years (to the day) after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall. We have made remarkable progress in race relations and civil rights, but we still have a lot to do to eradicate bigotry from our nation. Although we have provided a standard of living that is the envy of most of the world, we still have much to do to right the economy, fight poverty and improve health care.
As we observe the Fourth of July, it also is appropriate to express gratitude for our freedom, especially our religious liberty, which the Baptist Joint Committee works every day to defend and extend for all Americans.
First, we should pause to thank God. All freedom starts with God. The Bible teaches us in Genesis that the sovereign God of the universe created you and me in God’s image. This means we were made to have a relationship with God. For that relationship to be genuine, it must be voluntary, entered into freely and based on love, not in any way compelled or based on fear. It means each of us has free will and is competent to respond to God as our conscience dictates, unimpeded and uncoerced by earthly authorities. The Apostle Paul carries this theme forward in his letter to the Galatians when he writes that for freedom Christ has set us free; do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. Yes, religious liberty is a right—a natural, inalienable right—that we receive as a gift from God. Thanks be to God.

baptiststandard.com

An RAF fighter pilot was told to trim his handlebar moustache: the rules say the moustache is not to hang below the mouth.
A French engineer has plastered every train station in Bucharest with signs looking for a very average girl he met by chance in the city one month ago. “She had dark brown hair, brown-to-black eyes, five feet seven inches tall, not too thin, not too fat," said Nicolas Le Marecha.
Studies repeatedly find that Japan is one of world’s most sexless societies, but the country’s porn industry is booming, and “elder porn” is a new hit. Its star is 74-year-old Shigeo Tokuda.
Also from Japan, it’s a cucumber. With a leaf growing out of it. And people love it.
Have a whacko news tip? E-mail it in to win a National Post mug.
Photo: Who needs a pilot's licence when your moustache is this good. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

network.nationalpost.com

And lo, were the cries of the PlayStation faithful for in-game XMB finally answered with firmware update v2.40.
A post on the PlayStation.blog confirms that the update will contain the much-desired in-game access to the PlayStation 3’s “XrossMediaBar.”
At last year’s E3, Sony used some cheeky t-shirts to poke fun at the PlayStation 3 community’s apparent obsession with the feature.
The 2.40 update will also include trophies (read: Sony’s take on Achievements), as well as “other new enhancements.”
There is one tiny catch, however. The next scheduled update, which is coming “soon,” is only 2.36. No XMB or trophies coming in that one, just improved “system stability when playing selected PlayStation format” games.
So there’s still a bit of waiting to do, PS3 lovers.

escapistmagazine.com

The last time the Orem Owlz took the field, they competed for 16 innings to knock off the Great Falls White Sox 3-2 and win the Pioneer League Championship on Sept. 14, 2007.
So what was on the line Tuesday night?
The Owlz and visiting Ogden Raptors battled in a classic Pioneer League season opener at Brent Brown Ballpark in Orem. It took four hours and 13 innings to determine a winner.
After a double play ended the top of the 13th frame, the power went off at the stadium and forced an extended delay. Owlz management elected to take advantage of the break to shoot off the postgame fireworks display.
When play resumed in the bottom of the 13th, Orem loaded the bases with two outs and Angel Castillo stepped to the plate. Castillo hit a fly ball to right field, where the Raptor outfielder slipped while going for the ball, allowing the winning run to cross the plate.
After the teams battled to a 3-3 tie through 10 innings, Odgen appeared to be in control in the top of the 11th as it pushed two runs across the board.
But Orem fought back with a pair of runs of its own to tie the score. The home team had the bases loaded with one out, but the top of the order struck out twice to force the teams to continue playing.
The 11th followed the script of the rest of the marathon competition as the Owlz never led.
The visitors made the big plays early in the contest, turning double plays in three of the first four innings to keep Orem scoreless.
The Ogden offense did its part in the fourth, opening the scoring as a pair of singles by second baseman Elian Herrera and first baseman Kyle Orr, setting the table for third baseman Pedro Baez to pick up two RBI on a double to left-center field.

heraldextra.com

“I just tried to play a good round and use it as a steppingstone into the British [Open] and some of the things I want to work on for the British,” said Mickelson, who closed with a 68 and finished the tournament 6-over-par 290.
This year’s British Open will be contested at Royal Birkdale, where Mickelson played in 1991 and ‘98. The 1991 tournament was Mickelson’s first foray into the British Open.
“I love the golf course,” he said. “I think it’s spectacular, and I’m looking forward to playing.”
Mickelson has been runner-up four times at the U.S. Open, tying Sam Snead for the record. He last finished second in 2006 at Winged Foot, where he failed to hold a two-shot lead with four holes to play.
“This has been a great Open championship,” he said. “Obviously I would have liked to have played better, but the way the course has been presented, the way it was set up, it was the fairest, best test in golf.”
High Marks for Torrey Pines
Torrey Pines rated well among the players as the scenic course hosted the U.S. Open for the first time. Consensus was the course was fair and better set up for scoring than its two predecessors, Winged Foot in 2006 and Oakmont last year.
Angel Cabrera (Oakmont) and Geoff Ogilvy (Winged Foot) won those Opens with scores of 5 over. Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate tied after 72 holes at 1 under at this year’s tournament and will meet in an 18-hole playoff Monday.
"Yeah, I think it was very fair," reigning British Open champion Padraig Harrington said. "I think the course is exceptionally generous, the setup today. . . . Yeah, I think it’s a really good golf course."
Said Mickelson: "I got to think that the USGA loves the way this tournament has played out, and I think Torrey Pines, in my opinion, has played the best that any Open setup has played."

washingtonpost.com