Scuttlebutt Pipeline

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Entertainment Tonight reported on its Web site Monday that the FBI and LAPD were investigating “legitimate” leads into a contract hit on the life of Kevin Federline. According to ETonline.com, multiple sources claim the FBI has attempted to contact Federline, Britney Spears’ ex-husband, to inform him of the hit.

FBI sources told ET that contacting someone whose life has been threatened is standard operating procedure for the bureau.

When contacted by ET, the FBI said they can neither confirm nor deny an investigation.

Meanwhile, Web site TMZ.com reports the LAPD closed an investigation into a threat on Federline’s life nearly two months ago because of insufficient evidence.

(source)

I’m a little surprised this man has a hit out on him, after all, he hardly seems important enough to warrant that sort of attention. I’m sure several people out there are wondering how much of this is real and how much of it is a publicity stunt.

Of course it could be that some music fans have had enough of the garbage he spins and calls “music” and thought to take out the source of the disturbance. While I can understand their stance I think they’re going about it all wrong. Remember, many musicians who were mediocre, at best, in life, rocketed to international fame after their deaths. Especially if the death was a horrible accident or brutal murder. If that happens we’ll be listening to his crud 24/7 for a good couple of months after his demise and he’ll probably get a movie made for him too.

So who ever put the hit out, do all of our eyes and ears a favor and recall it please.

There are a plethora of companies and websites out there that offer scholarships to help fund a student’s college career. I imagine you could think of at least three such places off the top of your head, but can you think of one that has a scholarship election system?

CollegeNET.com utilizes a unique system, which they call “scholarship election”, that essentially allows the students to determine who should and should not be awarded the scholarship funds. The process through which the students can determine the eligibility of one another is rather interesting as it incorporates aspects that everyone can agree are essential to academic and just real-world growth.

Each month students are given topics that they can expound upon. Topics range from forever hot-button-topics like abortion and religion to current events. Each student can cast votes on these discussions. At the end of each month, on midnight, the votes are tabulated and the top students who have accumulated the most voting points are awarded the scholarship money and discussion begins anew for the next month.

The ability to formulate and express one’s thoughts and opinions into a cohesive argument is something that cannot be taught in solely in a classroom. It is a skill that is acquired and honed through practice. But if one does not receive constructive criticism along the way their development will be severely stunted. CollegeNET’s system allows for both. Students are able to get practice on how to better express themselves and the voting system allows them to track their progress and improve their skills. I find this to be highly preferable to the old system of just sending in an essay and hoping the person that is reading them isn’t too bored, tired, or upset, when they get to yours.

To their high society owners, a pair of haute couture shoes can be a precious thing.

But to guard a 62,000 pound (120,000 dollar) pair of ruby- sapphire- and diamond-encrusted Rene Caovilla sandals at their London launch, retailer Harrods went to extreme lengths: bringing in a live Egyptian cobra to patrol the shoe counter.

Whether hiring a poisonous snake is, strictly speaking, the most effective means of guarding precious footwear might be a moot point with security experts.

But it makes for a pretty effective photo opportunity.

A spokeswoman for Harrods admitted that the cobra had been hired strictly for Monday’?s launch of the shoe collection.

“The snake has now been returned to its owner,” she said.

So no need to fear snake bites at the shoe counter, then.

“Not unless you’re a burglar,” the spokeswoman said
(Source)

I’m not even going to crack a joke about the shoes, although it’s very tempting. I mean come on, diamond, ruby, and sapphire encrusted shoes? Am I the only one that sees the ridiculousness of this?

Now about having a cobra for a security system. Well, truth be told that would probably deter most thieves. Unless of course you’ve got a gun with a silencer or have good aim with throwing weapons. In which case you have a poor dead snake and officials that look like idiots.

TrustedPlaces.com is an easy to use, and easy on the eyes, website whose aim is to provide feedback and ratings on different spots to hang out, eat and drink in cities from around the world. Users leave feedback on places they’ve been, telling others what the service was like and the overall experiance. From this you can better decide which places warrant a visit and which should be avoided at all costs.

Just because London restaurants and clubs happen to be the most popular sections of the site doesn’t mean that the website is geared exclusively to the European crowd.

Perhaps it’s just me, but I can’t help but to feel that this officer was looking for someone to toss into the clinker:

UNION CITY, Ga. - A McDonald’s employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges because a police officer’s burger was too salty, so salty that he says it made him sick.

Kendra Bull was arrested Friday, charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on $1,000 bail.

Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who “tried to thump the salt off.”

On her break, she ate a burger made with the salty meat. “It didn’t make me sick,” Bull told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But then Police Officer Wendell Adams got a burger made with the oversalted meat, and he returned a short time later and told the manager it made him sick.

Bull admitted spilling salt on the meat, and Adams took her outside and questioned her, she said.

“If it was too salty, why did (Adams) not take one bite and throw it away?” said Bull, who has worked at the restaurant for five months. She said she didn’t know a police officer got one of the salty burgers because she couldn’t see the drive-through window from her work area.

Police sent samples of the burger to the state crime lab for tests.

City public information officer George Louth said Bull was charged because she served the burger “without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it.”

(Source)

News flash, stuff like this happens all the time. The cooks in restaurants do this all the time, something goes wrong in the process and they attempt to salvage it instead of tossing it out. I can’t say I blame them either. But really, if the burger was too salty would you have kept eating it or would you have brought a complaint to the management’s attention immediately? This is McDonald’s after all.