Tiger Woods: Quail Hollow Championship 2010

For many, any news that involves Tiger Woods is old. Fans have grown weary of the Tiger-Tale it seems. However, if you want to talk Tiger Woods and the Quail Hollow Championship, you can probably find some takers. Some things just never grow old.
As it is though, Tiger doesn’t look too wonderful. He has put his balls in the water on the 17th and 18th holes already this morning. That kind of golfing will get you no where except possibly seven shots behind the frontrunners. With that, Phil Mickelson hits the course in about an hour and the world will surely be watching to see if he can handle the Quail Hollow Championship 2010 any better than Tiger has thus far.

The Quail Hollow Championship 2010 is only the second PGA event for Tiger Woods since his horrible off-the-course adventures were made public.. And, in the first go at it, he managed to set a personal record in round one only to lose is grip later in the weekend. Thus far this morning, the Quail Hollow Championship 2010 hasn’t been very kind to the troubled golfer. Hopefully he can at least get his on-the-course act together before moving much further into the season.

Today Show Looks at the Tonya Craft Trial

Tonya Craft is the school teacher accused of molesting children left in her care. Until this morning, William Anderson was almost alone in scrutinizing the case, but the Today Show took a look this morning. Here’s the segment.
I wish there had been a little more emphasis on the actions of the trial judge. Child molestation is monstrous. To be falsely accused of child molestation must be galling. And to be falsely accused and then go to trial where the presiding judge is making lousy decisions left and right has to be terrifying.

It happens more often than most people want to believe. For more, go here and here.

Happy Town is More Strange Than Scary; It Stars Sam Neill and Lauren German

Happy Town, starring Sam Neill and Lauren German, premiered on ABC Wednesday night. The mystery dramatic series takes place in Haplin, Minnesota, and centers around alleged abductions plus a new murder allegedly tied to one deemed as the "Magic Man." This murder is the first serious crime that's happened in five years, but begins to open up a can of worms. The episodes of Happy Town are an hour each. The program is very fast moving, but comes across as rather strange instead of creepy or scary, despite the hype.

The ABC Premiere of Happy Town, starring Sam Neill and Lauren German, Was Very Bizarre

The prologue opens with Georgia Bravin (Sarah Gadon) and Andrew Haplin (Ben Schnetzer) making out, and after she's dropped off in the woods because they have a secret romance, she hears something mysterious in a pond's warming shack many feet away, but is relieved after seeing a hawk above her making noise and heads home in relief. Yet in that shack Jerry Friddle, the "town weirdo" is bound and threatened with a gun, and mumbles a confession, but ends up with a spike driven through his head.

Who got kicked off american idol april 28 – Siobhan Magnus Elimination

Who got kicked off American Idol in results April 28? Who was voted off American Idol April 28’s episode?

Siobhan Magnus got kicked off American Idol in April 28. Magnus has the voice, talent and creative energy, but perhaps “Idol” just wasn’t the right format.

Magnus is an American singer-songwriter from Marstons Mills, Massachusetts who was the sixth place finalist on the ninth season of American Idol.

Yesterday Siobhan sung “Any Man of Mine” and set the stage on fire. Last week, Tim Urban had to leave American Idol in Top 7.

Here are results.

Order Contestant Song Result
1 Lee DeWyze You’re Still the One Safe
2 Crystal Bowersox No One Needs to Know Safe
3 Aaron Kelly You’ve Got a Way Safe
4 Michael Lynche It Only Hurts When I’m Breathing Bottom 3
5 Casey James Don’t! Bottom 3
6 Siobhan Magnus Any Man of Mine

Site Seeks to Restore Stephen Baldwin to His Former Glory (for God’s Sake)

I have nothing against Stephen Baldwin, I really don’t. He’s sometimes called the least-talented Baldwin, but I’d give that title to Billy. Still, the idea behind this video is all kinds of crazy.

Apparently Stephen Baldwin has fallen on hard times financially, and has declared bankruptcy. He’s not alone. Celebrities from M.C. Hammer to Donald Trump have declared bankruptcy in the past. What sets Stephen Baldwin apart is that an online charity is soliciting donations to “restore” the actor, for the sake of the gospel. You have to visit the site to get the full effect of how odd and ill-conceived the entire plan seems to be. Stephen Baldwin himself is reportedly not directly involved. For his own sake, I sincerely hope that’s true. If close friends of his were involved in creating this appeal, Mr. Baldwin may want to consider finding new friends.

I’d like to copy a couple of things from the Q & A section followed by my observations.

Q- Why does Stephen need personal wealth?

A- Stephen’s influence is in Hollywood. Hollywood worships money and without it you are seen as a loser and cannot be an effective influence to this group.

And? Are we to “buy” spiritual influence with personal wealth? Some Christians are wealthy and some are not, but to seek wealth so that you won’t be seen as a “loser” is to be seriously misguided. And, really, if millions of dollars were to be donated to Stephen Baldwin – and that’s a sizable “if” – would that produce effective influence? Or would it be seen as evidence that a sucker is born every minute, and many of them are fans of Stephen Baldwin? Perhaps, instead, there is another way to look at the difficulties he now faces. This may be an opportunity for Mr. Baldwin to have his values transformed, to be freed from trying to satisfy a culture that worships money.

Q- How much money does he need?

A- From what I read in public court documents Stephen needs several million dollars to pay all of his creditors but he deserves hundreds of millions for his Job like faithfulness in the face of relentless loss and persecution.

I’d like to see the formula used to calculate just how much money Stephen Baldwin “deserves”. And could we see how that formula works for some other faithful Christians? What about Bible translators? Orphanage directors? Hospice workers? Military chaplains? Or perhaps it’s the “relentless loss and persecution” that entitles Mr. Baldwin to hundreds of millions of dollars. In which case, could someone at The Restoration of Stephen Baldwin please apply the formula to the Christians currently being persecuted in places like Iraq, China and Bangladesh? I was going to speculate on whether teaching Sunday School might at least entitle me to a $100 Borders gift card or something like that, but I don’t think I’ll go there. The Christian faith rests on the conviction that we don’t deserve any good thing from God. The blessings we receive are gifts of grace, and they are certainly not always monetary.

Particularly galling to many who’ve commented on the appeal is that over $1 million of Stephen Baldwin’s debt is in unpaid taxes. It’s hard to see failure to pay one’s taxes as resulting from persecution. Here’s part of Rod Dreher’s commentary at Beliefnet:

What kind of Christian-crackhead logic is it that says the faithful have a duty to give alms to make a failed spendthrift actor rich once again to advance the kingdom of God? Is going broke in part because you didn’t pay your taxes really a matter of spiritual warfare? Did the Devil make poor Stephen Baldwin not obey the law? The mind boggles, the stomach turns. The funny thing is, this stunt, which will get lots of coverage, will guarantee both a) that Hollywood people laugh even harder at Christian nitwittery, and b) that no matter how rich he should become through this online telethon, Stephen Baldwin will have no “influence” in Hollywood — none, zero, gesphincto — because he’d be seen as the honor-deficient bozo who didn’t pay his taxes and got bailed out anyway by credulous born-agains.

Son of Sylvia

Did you recognize Sons of Sylvia, the country-pop trio who performed their single “Love Left to Lose” on tonight’s episode of American Idol? In 2007, these guys won Fox’s The Next Great American Band, the Idol-for-bands series created by Idol mastermind Simon Fuller. Back then they were known as the Clark Brothers, and their distinctive bluegrass interpretations of tunes like Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” led them to victory over 11 other semifinalists. “We went from sending in an audition tape to being on the show to having to figure out, every week, a new way to play a song,” lead singer Ashley Clark (pictured, left) tells the Music Mix now. “When we won and all the fireworks went off, it was pretty much like, ‘How did we get here?’”
You might ask them the same question today. Almost immediately after winning The Next Great American Band, Ashley Clark and his brothers Adam and Austin Clark (pictured, center and right) hit the studio to start work on what would become their debut. “I would say we’d written about 350 songs, something crazy like that,” Ashley says. “We were just trying to discover our sound more…We wrote some bluegrass stuff, [but] it just didn’t feel like, at least right now, that was the time for it.” So the Clarks kept plugging away in studios from L.A. to Nashville to Vancouver to Colorado. As the winners of NGAB, they were signed to 19 Recordings, the same label as Idol alums like Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, Daughtry, Jordin Sparks, and more. 19 and Interscope Records helped set the siblings up with industry pros who guided them toward the glossier pop style heard on Revelation, which arrived in stores at last this week.
About a year ago, the Clark Brothers became Sons of Sylvia. “We wanted to change our name with the music. We just wanted a fresh start with a fresh sound,” says Ashley. Sylvia, naturally, is their real-life mom’s first name. “She’s totally thrilled. When we told her we changed the name, she was crying. My dad was like, ‘Why don’t you name it Sons of Frederick?’”
That’s not the only family connection that’s come in handy for Sons of Sylvia. Hitmaker Ryan Tedder (“Bleeding Love,” “Halo”) is a second cousin — Tedder’s mother and Sylvia herself are first cousins, for those keeping track at home — and he co-wrote and produced “Love Left to Lose,” the single they played on Idol. “I knew [Tedder] before he got big,” Ashley says. “My early twenties is when we started hanging out more in Nashville. We lived together. We were broke together. We backpacked across Europe together, just for fun. We got mugged in Paris one time together.”
Ashley Clark was only “a little nervous” about performing on Idol tonight. “I just try to do my best and get into the song, even though there’s cameras and things. I can’t imagine what the contestants — well, actually, I can imagine,” the reality competition veteran realizes with a chuckle. “Actually, it feels a lot better. It’s not like people are going to vote you off.”
After Idol, Sons of Sylvia go back to opening for Carrie Underwood on a U.S. tour that extends through December (including some Canadian dates along the way). “We’ve been on the road since March, just going non-stop,” Ashley says. “It’s a blast. It keeps getting better and better. We don’t want it to end.”

U.S. Approves First Offshore Wind Farm Near Cape Cod (Update2)

April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the first wind farm in U.S. waters, a project of more than $1 billion off the Massachusetts coast that was opposed by the late Senator Edward Kennedy.

Cape Wind, 130 wind-powered turbines to be placed in the shallow waters of Nantucket Sound, will have to be reconfigured to “reduce the visual impact” from land in order to go forward, Salazar said in a statement today. When completed the wind farm may generate enough power for more than 200,000 average U.S. homes, the Interior Department said.

Homeowners whose ocean views would be affected and local environmentalists spent $20 million over nine years to block the project. The wind farm also was opposed by Indian tribes and Kennedy, a Democrat who represented Massachusetts in Congress for 46 years until he died in August. The turbines would be visible from the Kennedy family compound in Hyannisport, though Salazar said steps have been taken to improve the view.

“I am convinced there is a path we can take forward that both honors our responsibility to protect the natural and cultural resources of Nantucket Sound, and at the same time meets the need to repower our economy with clean energy produced from wind power,” Salazar said today at the Massachusetts statehouse in Boston.

Legal Challenges

Cape Wind still needs approval from the Federal Aviation Administration because the turbines may interfere with tower-to- aircraft transmissions. A legal challenge to the wind farm is pending in the Massachusetts courts, and more lawsuits are likely, said Pat Parenteau, a professor at Vermont Law School in South Royalton who specializes in ocean and coastal resources.

The developer will be required to paint the metal turbines “off-white to reduce contrast with the sea and sky yet remain visible to birds,” Salazar said in the statement.

The department is also requiring that the developer take extra steps to ensure any archeological items in the seabed are protected before construction begins, Salazar said. Two Wampanoag Indian tribes say Cape Wind would disturb ancient burial grounds that are underwater.

The Obama administration said the wind farm will create “several hundred” construction jobs and amount to one of the nation’s largest single sources for the reduction of greenhouse- gas emissions blamed for climate change.

The project will cut carbon-dioxide pollution from traditional coal-fired power plants by 700,000 tons a year, the equivalent of removing 175,000 cars from the road annually, the Interior Department said.

‘Bittersweet’ on Environment

“It’s bittersweet from an environmental standpoint,” Parenteau said. “On one hand you are talking about a very scenic area rich with wildlife. On the other hand, the wind farm is a clean-energy resource that in one stroke will remove close to 1 million tons of carbon a year from the air.”

Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts said the decision means “jobs and clean energy” for his state.

The move also puts the U.S. in a better position to compete in the global clean-energy market, according to Katherine Kennedy, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York, who isn’t related to the late senator.

“Europe is way ahead of the U.S. in terms of numbers of offshore wind projects,” she said. “Finally, the U.S. has entered the race and has a chance to catch up.”

Cape Wind would generate a maximum of 468 megawatts from turbines spread over 25 square miles of waters about 5 miles off mainland Cape Cod, in an area known as Horseshoe Shoal. The developer, Cape Wind Associates LLC, said on March 31 it would buy turbines from Siemens AG of Germany, which pledged to open a U.S. office in Boston.

Energy Management Inc.

Principals in Energy Management Inc., a closely held Boston energy company, put up $40 million in development costs for the project from proceeds on the sale of six natural-gas power plants in 2000, according to Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers.

The project still faces formidable challenges, including the securing of financing and working out power contracts with the local utility, according to Ethan Zindler, head of North American research for Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

“After nine years, now comes the hard part,” said Zindler, who estimates the wind farm’s cost may exceed $2 billion, double the estimate cited by the administration.

National Grid Plc

National Grid Plc, a London-based company that delivers power to about 3.3 million customers in the U.S. Northeast, said in December it would negotiate to buy the electricity generated by the Cape Wind farm. The company said in a statement today the talks are going “very well.”

President Barack Obama has pledged to double renewable energy from the wind, sun and biodegradable waste in three years. The Energy Department says wind can supply 20 percent of U.S. power by 2030, up from 1.8 percent today.

The U.S. gets no power from offshore wind turbines. Northern Europe already has about 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity, with a target to reach 40,000 megawatts by 2020, according to Walter Musial, head of offshore wind research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.

About 6,300 megawatts of offshore wind are planned for the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, the Great Lakes and British Columbia, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The decision on Cape Wind will be felt throughout the industry, said Jerome Guillet, who was head of energy for Brussels-based lender Dexia SA before starting a financial advisory firm in Paris.

Leaders of 3,200 Wampanoag Indians with roots in Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard say Cape Wind’s turbine blades, reaching 440 feet into the air, would desecrate the view of the sunrise that’s essential to their prayer ceremonies. A month before Kennedy died on Aug. 25, he wrote to Obama imploring him to halt action on the wind farm, which would be visible from the senator’s home.