Big day for the Angels. Are smart phone games are taking over our lives? GOP to Israel: We're BFFs. Anonymous subgroup puts LAPD info online. Newt: The man, the myth, the presidential candidate. The breakthrough inventions of a Hollywood beauty.
Big day for the Angels
Rumors of big signings have been swirling around the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – and this morning, fans woke up to good news that got better. The Angels have landed two of the top free agents on the market – slugger Albert Pujols, hot off a World Series win with the St. Louis Cardinals, and local boy C.J. Wilson.
Pujols has agreed to a ten-year stint, said to be in the neighborhood of $250 million. Wilson is reportedly signing on for five years to the tune of nearly $78 million. Pujols, 31, has played his entire career in St. Louis, putting together a Hall of Fame resume that includes a .328 average, .420 on-base percentage, 445 home runs and 1,329 runs batted in. Wilson, also 31, is saying goodbye to the Texas Rangers, who lost the World Series to the Cardinals last October. With this double play, the Angels look to be angling for the next American League West title.
WEIGH IN:
Could these two power players strengthen the lineup and lead the Angels to new heights?
Guest:
Kevin Baxter, Sportswriter, Los Angeles Times
Are smart phone games taking over our lives?
Looks like Alec Baldwin’s temper and his apparent addiction to a certain Smartphone game, got him kicked off a plane earlier this week. The actor was on an American Airlines flight bound for New York, where he was slated to shoot an episode of the sitcom “30 Rock.”
The flight was delayed on the runway. So, Baldwin whipped out his Smartphone and played a few rounds of Words with Friends. The flight attendants objected, sharing a few words of their own. Ultimately, Baldwin got booted from the plane. The incident was made public by Baldwin himself, in a tweet: “Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving.”
American Airlines reps were not amused. “When the door is closed for departure and the seat belt light is turned on, all cell phones and electronic devices must be turned off for taxi-out and take-off,” they wrote in a statement. “This passenger declined to turn off his cell phone when asked to do so at the appropriate time. The passenger ultimately stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the plane's lavatory. The passenger was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language.”
The kerfuffle has been great for Zynga, Words with Friends’ parent company. The game, which already has over 12-million users, added 100,000 more in the last day alone. What’s the big fuss about this game, which is basically just like Scrabble? Users say it’s as addictive as crystal meth because it taps into social networks, allowing gamers to play with strangers or friends. Be that as it may, we all know there are times when we must power down. Refusing to do so can Boggle fellow passengers and turn flight attendants into Angry Birds.
WEIGH IN:
Are playing these games worth the risk of getting in trouble? Are they adding to or interfering with our lives? Can you control your own habit? Has someone else’s gaming annoyed you? What’s your #gamerstory?
GOP to Israel: We're BFFs
In Washington yesterday, Republican presidential contenders trumpeted bold promises to Israel and to American Jewish voters. At a forum organized by the Republican Jewish Coalition, Newt Gingrich said one of his first executive orders as president would be moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Michele Bachman echoed that position and said she even has a donor to fund the move. Both were greeted with eager applause.
Not to be outdone, Mitt Romney restated his pledge that Israel would be the first country he would visit as president. Rick Perry clarified his position on aid to Israel, characterizing U.S. money to Israel as requisite "strategic defensive aid." Previously, Perry had called on ending all U.S. foreign aid. All the candidates including Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman (Ron Paul was not invited to the forum) questioned President Obama's allegiance to Israel.
American Jewish voters represented just 2 percent of the electorate in 2008, and Obama drew the vast majority of their support. In courting the Jewish vote, the Republicans always have to reckon with domestic policies that historically hold little appeal to that demographic.
WEIGH IN:
But is this about more than American Jews? Evangelical Christians in key early states would also be rallied by yesterday's speeches. How vulnerable is Obama among Jewish voters? What is the difference between the interests of America in the Middle East and the interests of an American ally there? How will the president pursue American Jews leading up to 2012?
Guest:
Linda Feldmann, White House Correspondent, Christian Science Monitor
Anonymous subgroup puts LAPD info online
Yesterday evening, a group associated with Anonymous, the international cyberhacking outfit, posted personal information about LAPD officers online. CabinCr3w, as the group labels itself, included addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and even the names of children on a post to a website called “Sticky Paste,” which allows for uploads to be made of any data without an account.
Eventually, the information was taken down and links provided on the group’s Twitter account stopped working, but later the same day the information was reposted to a new website, the group’s Tumblr. The LAPD stresses that its servers have not been breached, and that such actions are not illegal, even though they are “creepy.”
CabinCr3w cited to KPCC in this story that they posted the information as a reaction to the way in which police forces dealt with the Occupy L.A. protesters, pointing to violence during the raid and the length of time in which some arrestees are being detained. Police defend their actions by saying they gave the protesters plenty of advance notice to leave the area. What really seems to rankle the department is that the group included some information associated with officers that have been retired and had nothing to do with the Occupy L.A. raid, as they are now trying to lead the lives of civilians.
WEIGH IN
Is this just digital blustering? Will anything worse come from this information being made public? What does the group hope to accomplish in the long run? How was so much information amassed without a breach in the LAPD’s computer system? Why isn’t this illegal?
Guest:
Tami Abdollah, KPCC Reporter
Newt - the man, the myth, the presidential candidate
Former flame-out and current frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president, Newt Gingrich has had a storied career in politics. He got his start in the late 1970’s, running a brilliant but nasty campaign for Georgia’s sixth congressional district. He made a big play for the family-values voters. In one campaign ad he even went so far as to suggest that his female democratic opponent would leave her husband behind if she was elected while he’d be bringing his family with him to Washington.
His time in Washington was filled with incredible highs and very low lows. Within three terms of entering politics many were calling him the most disliked man in congress. Gingrich arrived on the House floor at about the same time as C-SPAN. He immediately saw the impact television could have on the political process. In fact, after becoming speaker in 1995 he was the first Speaker of the House to request and receive a prime-time slot to address the nation.
His media savvy served him well throughout most of his tenure as speaker but as the 90’s waned so did his popularity. After being brought up on ethics charges and forced to pay hundreds of thousands in penalties, the disastrous attempt to impeach Bill Clinton on charges that he lied to a grand jury, and a thorough trouncing for the Republican party in the 1998 elections, Gingrich’s own party turned on him and he decided not to seek reelection.
He didn’t stay out of the public eye for long though. He authored several books on history and turned himself into an in-demand political pundit. Now he’s seeking the republican presidential nomination, a bid that has also seen it’s ups and downs. Last June his senior staff quit en masse saying Gingrich was more interested in hawking books than being president. But today’s he’s seeing a major turn around. National polls have him miles ahead of any competitors, even supposed frontrunner Mitt Romney.
WEIGH IN:
But does Newt really have a chance to win the nomination, let alone the general election? Are his years inside the beltway and help or a hindrance? Is he still deeply unpopular within some wings of the Republican Party? And, can he stay at the top of the heap, or is a tumble inevitable?
Guests:
Daniel Stone, White House correspondent, Newsweek and The Daily Beast
Denis O’Hayer, political reporter, WABE (Public Radio in Atlanta)
The breakthrough inventions of a Hollywood beauty
Hedy Lamarr has long been known as a raven-haired, sultry-eyed Hollywood bombshell and a risk-taking actress who famously bared all at age 17 in the 1933 film “Ecstasy,” but at heart, she was an inventor.
A new book, "Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr" by Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Rhodes explores how Lamarr, with avant-garde composer George Antheil, invented technology that paved the way for cell phones and GPS devices.
Born Jewish, Lamarr fled her native Austria for Hollywood before WWII, also escaping marriage to arms manufacturer and Nazi sympathizer Fritz Mandl. With knowledge of the munitions industry, and a childhood love of technology, Lamarr sparked a friendly connection with fellow tech appreciator Antheil at a Los Angeles dinner party in 1940.
The two collaborated, obtaining a joint patent with the U.S. for a jam-proof radio guidance system for Navy torpedoes. The invention came to be known as spread spectrum radio, an innovation based on the transmittal of communications signals over different frequencies.
Author Rhodes’ previous books include a series about nuclear history, which snagged him a Pulitzer. How does Lamarr’s life as an inventor mesh with your view of her as a film icon and Hollywood starlet?
Guest:
Richard Rhodes, author of "Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr" (Doubleday)