Tokyo screenings of Oscar-winning dolphin slaughter film canceled

We first wrote about "The Cove" in 2008, when it was tentatively titled "The Rising." Since then the film, about the slaughter of dolphins in a secluded cove in Japan, has won an Oscar for Best Feature- Documentary. Yet showings of the film in Japan may not happen.

Unplugged, the Japan distributor, had planned showings of the film at two cinemas in Tokyo this month. Those have been canceled because of fears that planned protests might "inconvenience movie-goers," whether or not they were attending "The Cove."

Despite all this, Unplugged is still in negotiations to show the movie at 23 venues around the country this summer. Screenings at one Osaka theater have also been called off.

At issue are planned protests by conservative activists who say the film is anti-Japanese. Takeshi Kato of Unplugged said in a faxed statement to Reuters, "'The Cove' is absolutely not an anti-Japanese film. I believe a deep and constructive debate is needed about the content of the film."

Japan's government has long defended its whale and dolphin hunts, saying such hunts are an important cultural tradition. The country continues to use the "research" loophole in anti-whaling laws to justify its whaling, for one.

Watch the trailer, and a video report, embedded below:

BA struggles to explain bin Laden frequent flier miles

One has to wonder if British Airways decided to screw up and thus take some of the heat off another company with the word "British" in its name, British Petroleum (BP). Nah, that makes to much sense.

Instead, this is likely a joke gone bad. BA is apologizing profusely after it was noted that the LHR News, the company's internal magazine for BA staff at London's Heathrow airport, had the image above in it. The photo accompanied an article touting the benefits of BA's mobile-boarding setup, which permits users of mobile devices (like bin Laden's iPhone) to print out their boarding passes on the fly.

The boarding pass reads "Bin Laden/Osama," as you can see. Worse, it appears that somehow bin Laden managed to get frequent flyer miles.

While it could just be a joke gone bad, it's also possible it's a bit of ill-natured sabotage by a disgruntled employee. After all, BA is embroiled in a nasty standoff with cabin crew that has led to strikes.

Summer Internships Underway for SLU AT Students

SLU athletic training students take MAT 590 Athletic Training Field Experience during the summer between their two years in the professional phase of the program.
The course is based in a summer internship experience and this year's internships are very exciting:

Jacob Blasingame - St. Louis Rams Football Club, St. Louis, MO

 

Geanie Butts - Disney/ESPN Wide World of Sports, Orlando, FL

Mollie Cole - University of Missouri Baseball, Columbia, MO

Meghan Gehrs - Gateway Grizzlies Baseball Club, Sauget, IL

Laura Gosewisch - Nazareth Academy, LaGrange Park, IL

Emily Monahan - AC St. Louis Soccer Club, St. Louis, MO

Diane Schlesselman - KC Explorers Professional Tennis, Kansas City

Ann Schmerbauch - River City Rascals Baseball Club, O'Fallon, MO

Bill Maher: Sarah Palin and the GOP Unreality Bubble

It's been said, and perhaps rightly so, that nowadays there is no such thing as privacy. With Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and more, there's little reason to expect that anything you say will be kept in confidence. Particularly in the realm of politics, of course.

Bill Maher's "epilogue" to his New Rules on the May 28th episode of his show was right on. While pointing a great deal at politicians, it's something that everyone should remember in this data-everywhere world. As he said, "Even when you're just at Wal-Mart in your pajamas buying condoms, someone is taking a picture of it and putting it on a website called 'People at Wal-Mart Buying Condoms in Their Pajamas.'"

Here's the full transcript, and the video is below:

Jesus once said that there was nothing hidden that would not some day be revealed, but if he was alive today, and walked on water, it would be instantly on YouTube between a skateboard accident and a turtle biting a baby's ass. And the first comment would be "fag."

Even when you're just at Wal-Mart in your pajamas buying condoms, someone is taking a picture of it and putting it on a website called "People at Wal-Mart Buying Condoms in Their Pajamas." And Fergie, Fergie, Fergie -- whenever you're doing something shady in a hotel room, of course someone is filming it. Also be aware that, without makeup, you don't look anything like you do in the Black Eyed Peas.

And politically, it's even more ridiculous to think you can get away with a lie: Richard Blumenthal, running for the Senate in Connecticut, saying he was in Vietnam when he wasn't? This isn't camp, where you can tell a lie and no one will know back home. The Army keeps records!

Or John McCain saying, " I never considered myself a maverick," which of course prompted an avalanche of video, e-mails, letters and probably telegrams of McCain bragging that he was a maverick. There's video of everything, so to think you can get away with making a speech and just pulling stuff out of your ass, you'd have to be an egomaniac, a sociopath, or a world-class moron. Which brings me to Sarah Palin.

Now, last week Sarah said she knows what the Gulf states are going through now because, "I have lived and worked through that Exxon Valdez oil spill." Oh, please she 25, living in another part of the state that didn't see any oil. She "lived and worked" through Exxon Valdez the same way Christie Brinkley lived and worked through the Iranian hostage crisis. But she got away with it because she lied in the one place where it's still perfectly acceptable to lie -- inside the Republican bubble. It's where facts don't matter, because no one ever hears from that other side inconvenient called reality. 24 days into the oil spill, Fox News' Brit Hume said, "Where's the oil? You don't see it on the shore" -- like it's a hoax by pelicans to get free baths.

Within that bubble, people think they can get away with anything -- hiking the Appalachian trail? Getting your gay hooker from Rentboy.com? But they can't -- no one can anymore. If you don't believe me, text Tiger Woods and ask him.

And, speaking of hound dogs, our old friend John Edwards is looking for a plea deal this month, because he said he didn't have sex with that woman, and then they found video of him going down on her when she was six-months pregnant. Senator, there's got to be a simpler way to hide your face from the camera. Don't you have a hat?

Watch it: