orapethomas: 2013

Friday, November 1, 2013

Morning Report: Uriah Hall recounts run-in with Jason 'Mayhem' Miller

A night out with training partners from Reign MMA quickly turned into chaos for Uriah Hall, thanks to Jason Miller. Hall and 'Mayhem' were involved in a nasty incident Oct. 25 while attending BAMMA USA's Badbeat 11 event in Commerce, Calif. After being taunted with racial slurs by Miller, Hall threw a punch.

Now a week removed, Hall says he was merely an onlooker looking to settle tensions before being singled out by Miller.

"Initially, I saw a big bald-headed dude," Hall tells MMA Weekly. "Then it hit me that it was Mayhem Miller. I was a little star struck, at first. He was yelling at me though, and wanted to talk to the girl. I guess it was his ex. I tried to stay calm and just diffuse things. I was still kind of shocked that it was all happening."

After his punch 'just barely clipped' Miller, the pair were separated by security. It didn't stop there. Hall says following the confrontation with Miller, 'Mayhem' continued the onslaught via Twitter and text messages.

"I don't know how he got my number," Hall says. "I asked and his response was, ‘I am Mayhem Miller, I know everything.'"

Miller, seemingly unrepentant, only looks more bizarre after comments made by former acquaintances revealing personal anecdotes. Hall, who faces Chris Leben at UFC 168 on Dec. 28, says he's past being angry and simply hopes Miller takes the steps to get help.

5 MUST-READ STORIES

Lil Nog out. Just days after being set to face Alexander Gustafsson next year in London, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has withdrawn with an injury.

WADA on the house. Josh Barnett will have random, extensive pre-fight drug screenings paid for by the UFC.

TRT for a title shot. Vitor Belfort says he'd stop testosterone replacement therapy if he were granted a UFC middleweight title shot. "I've already said that, if they agree with it, I would (stop doing TRT)," he said. "No problem at all. If they want me to get there in a disadvantage, that's ok."

20 in 20. Chuck Mindenhall's series hits 2010, the year we said hello (goodbye?) to the WEC and Ferrari World.

JDS not impressed. Junior dos Santos says Cain Velasquez' performance at UFC 166 didn't necessarily prove he was better. "He applied pressure, grabbing hold of me and avoiding the fight, making the fight boring, making the audience boo a lot. An effective strategy to win, but he didn't prove he was the better fighter."

MEDIA STEW

Michael Bisping walks around Manchester with James Haskell.

Chael Sonnen and Rashad Evans put friendship aside.

King Mo talks Emanuel Newton.

And a pre-fight interview.

(HT to Zombie)

Friend of the MR Ottavia Bourdain teaches some BJJ.

Halloween special from Tommy Toe Hold.

Jordan Mein's dad gets a quick KO from last weekend.

Super Fight League 31.

TWEETS

Chael had some thoughts on Lil Nog pulling out.

New standard?

Kinda came out of nowhere.

Diego poetry will always have a home here.

What is?

Calling out Demian Maia?

Halloween.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Announced yesterday (Oct. 31 2013)

cancelled Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Alexander Gustafsson at UFC Fight Night in London.

FANPOST OF THE DAY

Today's Fanpost of the Day comes via Bradley Bates.

Rampage vs. Beltran? Wake me up when it's done

You've probably heard the news today that former UFC light-heavyweight Joey Beltran has stepped in to replace the injured Tito Ortiz and face Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson at Bellator 108.

Whilst this is good news for Bellator as they get to put on a fight with what is probably their biggest draw, it's bad news for us fight fans. With a combined four wins in their last 11 fights, neither guy is exactly riding high at the moment. Nor did either guy light up the UFC, at least not in the past four and a half years since 'Rampage' knocked out Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92.

Beltran (14-9-0(1) MMA, 0-0 BMMA) is a known brawler, but isn't exactly a finisher, having not finished a fight since his UFC debut in 2010. Rampage (32-11 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) on the other hand is known for his vicious knockout power, but again it's something we haven't seen as of late. You would have to go back to the above mentioned, albeit spectacular, knockout of Wanderlei Silva in 2008 for Rampage's last finish.

With both fighters last three wins coming by decision, it doesn't look as though it will be a 'balls to the wall' fight. Then there's the question of what happens to the winner? If Rampage wins do Bellator still do the Tito fight? And if Beltran wins, the Tito fight, for Rampage at least, wouldn't be easy to sell.

...

Check out the rest of the post here.

Found something you'd like to see in the Morning Report? Just hit me up on Twitter @SaintMMA and we'll include it in tomorrow's column.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/11/1/5051140/morning-report-uriah-hall-jason-mayhem-miller-ufc-dana-white-chael-sonnen-velasquez-mma-news
Tags: Keke Palmer randall cobb breast cancer awareness jennette mccurdy notre dame

Israel 'bombs' Syria as envoy presses peace talks bid

Damascus (AFP) - Israel has reportedly bombed a Syrian base to halt an arms shipment to Hezbollah, while the international Syria envoy said Friday there could be no peace talks without the opposition.

The reported air strike on a military base in regime stronghold Latakia on Wednesday would be the first Israeli strike on Syria since a US-Russian accord on chemical weapons averted punitive US military action last month.

Israel did not comment on the reports that emerged late Thursday, but it has struck Syria in the past and warned it will continue to take action to prevent sophisticated weapons from falling into the hands of Hezbollah -- a key Damascus ally -- and other militant groups.

Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television said Israel had targeted a shipment of surface-to-surface missiles destined for Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement fighting alongside the regime.

A US official confirmed to AFP that "there was an Israeli strike" but gave no details on the location or the target, while Israeli officials refused to comment.

Syria, which has cooperated with international disarmament efforts, has vowed to retaliate against any attack but did not respond when Israel carried out two air strikes in May against what an Israeli official said were Iranian weapons destined for Hezbollah.

Hoping to build on the momentum of last month's US-Russian accord to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal by mid-2014, UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has meanwhile been criss-crossing the region to rally support for the so-called Geneva II talks.

But Syria's deeply divided opposition has refused to attend unless President Bashar al-Assad's resignation is on the table -- a demand rejected by Damascus -- and powerful rebel groups have warned that anyone attending the talks will be viewed as a traitor.

"If the opposition does not participate there will be no Geneva conference," Brahimi told reporters in Damascus before returning to Beirut.

The veteran Algerian diplomat, who met with Assad on Wednesday, said the government had agreed to take part in the talks and that the opposition was "trying to find a way to be represented".

The main opposition National Coalition plans to meet November 9 to decide whether to attend the Geneva talks, but at least one key member of the bloc, the Syrian National Council, has said it will leave the umbrella group if it does so.

Chemical arms under 'tamper proof' seals

The reports on Thursday of the Israeli strike came as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said all of Syria's chemical arms were under "tamper proof" seals.

Some 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and 290 tonnes of chemical weapons "have been placed under seals that are impossible to break," OPCW spokesman Christian Chartier said Thursday.

The OPCW also said Syria's chemical arms production equipment had been destroyed.

Inspectors had until Friday to destroy all production and filling equipment in accordance with a timeline laid down by the OPCW and a UN Security Council resolution.

The resolution, stating that the arsenal must be destroyed by mid-2014, followed a US-Russian deal to avert military strikes on Syria after chemical weapons attacks near Damascus in August that killed hundreds of people.

The West blamed those attacks on Assad's regime, which denied all responsibility.

The United States was "increasingly confident" the chemical arsenal would be eliminated by June 30, said Thomas Countryman, a senior State Department official in charge of non-proliferation issues.

IHS Jane's, a defence consulting firm, hailed the OPCW "milestone" but cautioned the work was far from over, noting Syria's entire arsenal was still under regime control.

"This is a very hurried process that has significant and real uncertainty associated with it. Only when the weapons are destroyed or removed from Syria will it be complete," IHS Jane's director for aerospace and defence consulting David Reeths told AFP.

More than 120,000 people have been killed in the 31-month rebellion against the Assad regime triggered by his bloody crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired democracy protests.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission said Friday that regime forces had seized the town of Sfeira in Aleppo province after a 27-day siege, and activists said rebels had completely withdrawn.

The army maintains several arms factories in the area.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrias-chemical-arms-production-equipment-destroyed-085121737.html
Related Topics: daylight savings time Shannon Sharpe affordable care act tina fey Disney Infinity

'King Mo' Lawal-Emanuel Newton war of words shows no sign of slowing down

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- If you thought the ongoing war of words between "King" Mo Lawal and Emanuel Newton was going to simmer down now that their rematch for Bellator's interim light heavyweight title is just around the corner, well, guess again.

The duo continued trading barbs during separate interview sessions Thursday at the open workouts for their Saturday night fight at Long Beach Arena.

"What will not happen is that ugly-ass dance of his where he looks like a voodoo princess," said Lawal, who lost to Newton via upset knockout in February, "Again, y'all won't see that dance."

"Did he say that? Newton retorted. "Now that I know that I'm going to put a little extra stomp into my dance when I win this fight. ... You'd never hear me say ‘the reason why I want to win is I don't want to see Mo with his crown on his head.' That's just where we're different. I don't care. Worry about yourself, bro, don't worry about me."

Indeed, the contrasts are stark. As has been hashed out on separate MMA Hour appearances, Lawal feels that Newton has been disrespecting him since Newton scored a sensational spinning backfist knockout in their first fight; Newton feels Lawal is misrepresenting his affinity for Southern California's hardcore music scene and trying to turn it into a racial matter.

Neither fighter backed down from their stance on Thursday.

"What I said that was so bad?" Lawal said. "I called him a black skinhead, right? OK, I did my research, I saw a documentary awhile ago about skinheads that follow a music genre called hardcore. He's a hardcore kid he does that ugly-ass dance and all that stupid s---. ... I just said he's a black skinhead. I didn't say he was a racist against his own people. He likes that hardcore music that skinheads like. Is that bad?"

"That just shows ignorance, he doesn't understand that there are different walks of life," Newton countered. "Because he figures because if I listen to a heavier style of music, I'm at the Warped Tour and Ozzfest and running around with skinheads. You'll never see me at an Ozzfest, it's not mainstream, it's all underground. The LA hardcore scene is a way of life, the majority of the people in the scene are Mexican, with some whites and black people."

Then there was the issue of the words allegedly exchanged between the two in the sauna as both cut weight for their first fight. Lawal's version of the story has Newton saying, "I'm coming for you, [racial slur]."

"He says 'well, I never said that word in my life,'" Lawal said. "Well, I can't speak for everybody, but, 95.6 percent of us have said that word before. You said it, you heard it. He was trying to make it, ‘I grew up in Orange County, was raised by a nice white family, blah blah blah, Mo's delusional, Mo's this, Mo's that. I never say anything disrespectful to women.' We all have. I'm keeping it real, growing up we all said things like that. He tries to make it sound like I"m an ignorant thug or something like that. I'm college educated. Is he?"

For his part, Newton said he misremembered the sauna exchange when he spoke about it on the MMA Hour.

"The only thing I didn't recollect was when me and Mo were in the sauna the last time cutting weight and I didn't recollect," Newton said. "I said ‘I'm coming for you.' But I know Mo, and it wasn't like I was coming at him in a hostile way, you know? I was just saying, ‘I'm coming for you, be ready.' Obviously we were fighting each other, there was bad blood, I don't remember saying anything messed up to him. He runs his mouth and talks crap all the time, but when I say I'm coming for you, it becomes an issue? ... I don't regret saying anything to him."

While this has all played out like a new episode of the Fuse series "Beef," the fight itself and what it means within the division has almost become an afterthought.

Newton, who is based in Long Beach, feels Saturday night is his chance to show that the first fight wasn't a lucky punch.

"I just want to go out there and win, anyway," said Newton. "I don't want it to go a five-round fight, but I don't want people to go ‘oh it was just a lucky punch.' This was the fastest I've been, the most technical I've been. My mind is right. I definitely want to go out there and show it wasn't a fluke. I think Mo has more to prove than I do, but at the same time, I want to finish him once again.

"Anything can happen on any day," Lawal said. "There are few people who are on point 99 percent of the time ... A fight is a fight. Anything can happen. Emanuel Newton, he got me, he's worthy of us fighting again. Luckily I won my matches, I'm looking forward to fighting him again, I'm excited for every fight."

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/31/5052954/king-mo-lawal-emanuel-newton-war-of-words-shows-no-sign-of-slowing
Tags: hocus pocus Doug Martin Mary Queen of Scots columbus day Scott Eastwood

Senate panel OKs limited surveillance rollbacks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders of a Senate panel that oversees U.S. intelligence issues said Thursday it has approved a plan to scale back how many American telephone records the National Security Agency can sweep up. But critics of U.S. surveillance programs and privacy rights experts said the bill does little, if anything, to end the daily collection of millions of records that has spurred widespread demands for reform.

Legislation by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was approved by an 11-4 vote, would increase congressional and judicial oversight of intelligence activities. It also would create 10-year prison sentences for people who access the classified material without authorization, according to a statement released by committee chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the panel's top Republican.

Just how far it would scale back the bulk collection of Americans' telephone records was unclear.

The statement said the plan would ban bulk collection of records "under specific procedures and restrictions." Chambliss spokeswoman Lauren Claffey said some of the telephone metadata collection would continue, so long as intelligence officials followed rules for how it can be used.

Only certain people would have access to the phone data, according to the bill. It also would bar the NSA from obtaining the content of the phone calls. The current program only allows the NSA to collect phone numbers and times of calls and cannot listen in on phone calls without a warrant from a secret court.

"The threats we face — from terrorism, proliferation and cyberattack, among others — are real, and they will continue," Feinstein said in the statement. "Intelligence is necessary to protect our national and economic security, as well as to stop attacks against our friends and allies around the world."

She said "more can and should be done" to increase transparency of the surveillance and build public support for privacy protections.

But Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said the legislation allows the bulk collection to continue under certain safeguards. He called the safeguards a positive first step but said the NSA should stop sweeping up Americans' phone records and only obtain those that are connected to a specific terror plot.

Privacy advocates who have long called for the end of broad government snooping bristled at the bill, which they said would merely legalize the surveillance that the NSA has quietly undertaken since 2006.

"It's fitting that Senator Feinstein took Halloween to remind us why she's the favorite senator of the NSA's spooks," said David Segal, executive director of advocacy group Demand Progress. "Using squishy public relations language, she is striving to leave the impression that her bill reins in the NSA's mass surveillance programs — but it does nothing of the sort. ... Lawmakers must immediately recognize this legislation for the sham that it is — and reject it outright."

The Senate intelligence bill rivals one put forward earlier this week, by House and Senate judiciary committees, that would eliminate the phone data collection program that was revealed earlier this year in classified documents that were released to the media by NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

The dueling legislation means that Congress ultimately will have to decide how broadly the U.S. government can conduct surveillance on its own citizens in the name of protecting Americans from terror threats.

Polls indicate that Americans widely oppose the surveillance program.

Meanwhile, the NSA issued a more forceful statement rejecting reports that it illegally collected millions of records from communications links between Yahoo and Google data centers around the world.

The Washington Post, citing documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, has reported that the NSA sent records from the companies' internal servers to data warehouses at the agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Md.

The NSA said such reports have "misstated facts, mischaracterized NSA's activities, and drawn erroneous inferences about those operations." In a detailed statement, the agency said its activities are conducted in accordance with law and policy. And it said the data collection goes after valid foreign intelligence targets that often use communications over satellite links, microwave towers and fiber-optic cables.

"U.S. service provider communications make use of the same information superhighways as a variety of other commercial service providers," the agency said. "NSA must understand and take that into account in order to eliminate information that is not related to foreign intelligence."

Under normal procedures, the NSA is required to sort data based on relevant potential threats and seek additional legal authorities to access the information if the communication involves an American.

___

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-31-US-NSA-Surveillance/id-75eeecde4c4a43f89665357b134a4d8d
Related Topics: aapl calvin johnson Daylight Savings Time 2013 Preachers of LA area 51

Star Wars: Disney CEO Bob Iger's Firm 2015 Date Leaves 'Episode VII' Team Scrambling

J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan

This story first appeared in the Nov. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Disney might be experiencing a disturbance in the Force.

With the Oct. 24 exit of Star Wars: Episode VII writer Michael Arndt, the studio is under the gun to keep the film on course for a 2015 release despite a script that several insiders say isn't close to ready.

PHOTOS: 'Star Wars' Actors Then and Now

According to those close to the project, producer Kathleen Kennedy and most of the film's creative team have asked Disney to push the release to 2016, but studio CEO Robert Iger is adamant that Episode VII -- perhaps the franchise's most anticipated installment since 1999's The Phantom Menace -- not budge. That has created enormous pressure on all involved, with director J.J. Abrams stepping in to take over scripting duties with Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote 1980's Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, considered the best film in the series.

For his part, Arndt worked exclusively on Episode VII for most of the past year and already had penned a 40- to 50-page treatment before Lucasfilm was sold to Disney in October 2012. But as one of Hollywood's highest-paid screenwriters, who can command more than $300,000 a week doing rewrites, the Oscar-winning scribe (Little Miss Sunshine) was ready to move on to other projects.

Some sources say Abrams has become autocratic in recent months, wresting some casting control from Kennedy. But others disputed that notion, saying Abrams and Kennedy both have been involved in casting sessions. Unlike Kennedy, Abrams is said to be more in sync with Iger's desire to meet the 2015 release target -- which allows zero margin for error -- at all costs.

STORY: Michael Arndt Exits 'Star Wars: Episode VII'

Although the 2015 schedule already is full of tentpoles including Disney/Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Warner Bros.' Superman-Batman mashup and Lionsgate's final Hunger Games, Iger has crafted a Star Wars game plan that hinges on Episode VII hitting the big screen that summer. The studio is expected to roll out Episodes VII, VIII and IX over a six-year period, with at least two spinoffs -- penned by a team including Kasdan and Simon Kinberg -- interspersed between.

Still, another project insider dismisses talk of problems and what the writer shuffle means for what is perhaps Hollywood's most valued franchise. "It's nothing out of the ordinary," says the insider. "Almost every big movie changes writers at some point. There's no drama here."

E-mail: Tatiana.Siegel@THR.com
Twitter: @TatianaSiegel27

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/Ks6XWRWywXs/star-wars-episode-vii-disney-651482
Similar Articles: apple Bosses Day columbus day freedom tower joe flacco

PocketStation, the PS1's memory card with a screen, teased for November return

You might remember the PocketStation, but most of you probably don't -- it was a Japan-only peripheral that launched over there way back in 1999. Another thing rising from the dead today, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has just released highly-confusing teaser video promising a big PocketStation ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/AyOAU1Ut3VA/
Tags: Bad Grandpa Presidents Cup once upon a time revenge phoebe cates

From Abington to Yorkleigh: What to Name Your Subdivision in 1949

Did you grow up in a place called Colonial Terrace? Lawndale? Hawthorne Grove? Then you might want to thank Stanley L. McMichael. In his 1949 book Real Estate Subdivisions, the real estate guru took all the guesswork out of naming new suburban streets, providing a supersafe and hypersanitized vanilla list of options for future subdivision names.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

China Says Goodbye To Its Mysterious, Illegal High-Rise Fortress

The luxurious "mountain villa" built atop a Beijing high-rise is being torn down. The $4 million penthouse was built by a Chinese health care entrepreneur named Zhang Lin on the roof of an existing apartment building earlier this year, much to the chagrin of its party-pooper occupants.