U.N. VOTE RECOGNIZES PALESTINIAN STATE, U.S., ISRAEL OPPOSED: The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly (November 29th) to recognize a Palestinian state, with more than two-thirds of the 193 member nations voting in favor of
upgrading the Palestinians' status to "nonmember observer state" from "nonmember observer entity." The U.S. and Israel were among the nine states that voted no, joined by Canada, the Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Panama. There were 41 abstentions, among them many Western nations, including Britain and Germany. The vote came after a speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which he called it a, quote, "last chance" to save the two-state solution.  However, the vote doesn't change anything on the ground, where Israel still controls the West Bank and east Jerusalem and access to Gaza, and real independence won't be gained by the Palestinians until there's a peace deal with Israel. Both U.S. and Israel criticized the vote, with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice
saying, "Today's unfortunate and counterproductive resolution places further obstacles in the path of peace," and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it "meaningless" and saying, "It won't advance the establishment of a Palestinian state, but rather, put it further off."

INTERNET SHUT DOWN ACROSS SYRIA: Internet service went down Thursday (November 29th) across Syria, with the opposition saying President Bashar al-Assad's regime shut
it down, perhaps in preparation for a major offensive. Cellphone service also went out in Damascus and parts of central Syria. However, the government blamed the rebel fighters in the country's 20-month-old civil war for the outages. The developments come as the regime suffered a string of blows in recent weeks, losing air bases and other strategic facilities, and as rebels have recently begun pushing back into Damascus after being driven out of the capital after a July offensive. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned what she called the regime's, quote, "assault" on Syrians' ability to
communicate with each other and express themselves.

FRANCE CLEARS CONTINENTAL IN CONCORDE CRASH: A French court cleared Continental Airlines Thursday (November 29th) of criminal responsibility for the Concorde
crash in Paris in 2000 that killed 113 people. The court also absolved a Continental mechanic of involuntary manslaughter. The appeals court ruling, however, found Continental civilly responsible, opening the door to payments to the families of those killed and to Concorde operator Air France. The court confirmed that the crash was caused by a metal strip that
fell from a Continental plane onto the runway just before the Concorde took off, and that Continental welder John Taylor had violated industry norms by using titanium to forge the piece, which destroyed the Concorde's tire, causing pieces of rubber to damage the plane and spark the fire that brought it down.  However, it ruled that this was not criminal, since neither Taylor nor Continental could have predicted what had happened. The crash accelerated the
end of the use of the Concorde three years later due to high operating costs and a drop in demand.

MILITARY JUDGE ACCEPTS TERMS OF MANNING'S PLEA: A military judge yesterday (November 29th) accepted the terms under which Army Private Bradley Manning would plead guilty to seven charges for sending classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks. However, the ruling, which came during Manning's pretrial hearing, doesn't mean the pleas have been formally accepted, instead it approves the language of the offenses to which Manning would admit. The judge said those offenses would carry a maximum prison term of 16 years.  Government officials have not said whether they would continue prosecuting him for the other 15 counts he faces, including aiding the enemy, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Under the proposal, Manning would admit to sending a battlefield video file, some classified memos, more than 20 Iraq war logs, more than 20 Afghanistan war logs and other classified materials to WikiLeaks. Later yesterday, Manning took the stand, where he made his first public comments since his 2010 arrest in Iraq. He spoke about feeling like he was in a cage in the early days after his arrest and feeling that he was going to die there. He also said his isolation quickly led to a breakdown, and he eventually was put on suicide watch.

EX-PREZ GEORGE H.W. BUSH HOSPITALIZED WITH COUGH: Former President
George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized near his home in Houston since last Friday (November 23rd) for continuing treatment of a lingering cough. Methodist Hospital said the 88-year-old Bush had been in and out of the hospital recently for complications resulting from bronchitis.  But both the hospital and Bush's spokesman, Jim McGrath, said the former
president is stable and they expect him to be released by the weekend. McGrath said doctors want the cough to go away completely before Bush is discharged.  The former president also suffers from a form of Parkinson's disease that has forced him to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter to get around.

STRAUSS-KAHN REPORTEDLY REACHES SETTLEMENT WITH MAID DIALLO: Former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn has reportedly reached a settlement agreement with hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, who accused him of trying to rape her in an upscale New York City hotel last year, the Associated Press reported Thursday (November 29th), citing what was described as a person familiar with the case. Details of
the deal to settle Diallo's lawsuit against Strauss-Kahn were unknown. Although Strauss-Kahn was arrested after Diallo accused him of attacking her when she went to clean his room in May 2011, prosecutors later dropped the charges, saying they'd developed concerns about Diallo's credibility. Strauss-Kahn had claimed the encounter was consensual. However, Diallo later filed a civil suit against Strauss-Kahn, who'd tried unsuccessfully to claim that he had
diplomatic immunity from the suit.

MOST POPULAR BABY NAMES OF 2012: BabyCenter, the leading online pregnancy and parenting resource, has released its annual list of the top 100 baby names. Sophia and Aiden held on to their Number One spots on the list, while BabyCenter saw trends that showed the influence of the 50 Shades of Grey erotic novels, with the names Grey and Anastasia on the rise, the Masterpiece Classic hit Downton Abbey, boosting names including Branson, Edith, Sybil and Violet, and even Apple's voice-enabled personal assistant Suri, which climbed five percent on the girls' list.

Top 10 girls' names of 2012:

  1. Sophia
  2. Emma
  3. Olivia
  4. Isabella
  5. Ava
  6. Lily
  7. Zoe
  8. Chloe
  9. Mia
  10. Madison

Top 10 boys' names of 2012:

  1. Aiden
  2. Jackson
  3. Ethan
  4. Liam
  5. Mason
  6. Noah
  7. Lucas
  8. Jacob
  9. Jayden
  10. Jack

FALCONS DOWN SAINTS 23-13: The Atlanta Falcons defeated the New Orleans Saints 23-13 last night (November 29th) in Atlanta, in a game that saw Saints quarterback Drew Brees throw five interceptions for the first time in his career and end his NFL-record streak of throwing touchdown passes in 54 consecutive games. Brees finished 28 of 50 for 341 yards. Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan went 18 of 33 for 165 yard with one touchdown.

MEDIATION FAILS IN NHL TALKS: Mediation didn't help in the NHL talks, with federal mediators saying Thursday (November 29th) that after two days of their involvement in the negotiations between the league and the players' union, the two sides were no closer to an agreement that would end the lockout. It's not known what will happen next, as the possibility that the entire season will be lost continues to grow. So far, games have already been canceled through December 14th, and the New Year's Day Winter Classic and All-Star weekend wiped out.

TURKISH MEN ARE GETTING MUSTACHE IMPLANTS: A plastic surgeon in Turkey said he is doing about 50 to 60 mustache implants each month for men who are trying to project a more wise and prestigious image. Dr. Selahattin Tulunay said most of his patients are
tourists from the Middle  East, between the ages of 30 and 50. Dr. Tulunay told CNN, "For some men who look young and junior, they think [a mustache] is a must to look senior . . . more professional and wise. They think it is prestigious." The procedure costs about $7,000. (UPI)

CHECK IT OUT

KIM RIDLEY LIED ABOUT DAUGHTER BEING SEXY MODEL FOR EBAY AD: It turns out that the man in Oregon who reportedly used his daughter to sell his 1977 Datsun on eBay, lied about the daughter part. Despite Kim Ridley's comments to AdWeek claiming the model was his daughter "Lexxa," he now says the whole thing was a joke and that he probably took it too far. He ended up admitting to a local news station that the girl is not his daughter,
but a longtime friend. (KVAL)

NYPD OFFICER'S ACT OF KINDNESS GOES VIRAL: A tourist walking around Times Square, visiting from Arizona, witnessed Officer Larry DePrimo buying thermal socks and insulated winter boots, then giving the goods to a barefoot, homeless man to help keep warm. The gesture was caught on camera by the tourist, Jennifer Foster -- who sent the image to the NYPD. They shared it on their Facebook page and DePrimo immediately became a Facebook sensation. At press time the photo had 165,152 shares and 467,268 likes. According to the
Facebook page, DePrimo said, "I didn't think anything of it."

CHECK IT OUT

MAN ATTEMPTS TO SELL SLASH’S DRIVER’S LICENCE ON ‘PAWN STARS’: A man has shown up on a popular reality TV show trying to sell an actual California driver's license that once belonged to legendary guitarist Slash.  According to Blabbermouth, the man -- identified only as Travis -- appeared on the History Channel's popular program Pawn Stars, which follows the staff of a Las Vegas "upper market" pawn store called the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop.

Asked how he got his hands on Slash's ID, Travis said, "A good buddy of mine actually had it years ago. He got it from his girlfriend, who was a bartender, and she ended up being there serving these guys all long long. And the whole group were trying to get her to flash for 'em. So she did, she flashed one, and he threw it on the bar. I took it when I was about 18 and used it for my fake ID until I was 21."

  • Although Slash is one of rock's most recognizable figures, he told us he rarely gets bothered by fans in everyday life: "Depending on where you're at, sometimes you can get hassled if you're in a sort of high profile, you know, like in a nice restaurant or in a club or something like that. But everybody's really cool. I don't really get -- like,   'hassled' is a bad word. 'Recognized' is another way to put it. And I'm pretty low-key, and so people are usually very sort of, very polite and cool."
  • Travis turned up at the store in the middle of the night and wanted $50,000 for the license.
  • Store owner Rick Harrison only offered $1,000, saying, "If (Slash's) driver's license was worth 50 grand, I guarantee you he would be losing his license once a month and showing up at DMV, 'Ah, sorry, guys, I lost it again,' 'cause he would be selling that many."
  • Travis refused to accept anything less than $15,000 so no deal was reached.
  • Pawn Stars is currently in its sixth season and is the highest rated reality show on the History Channel.
  • Slash has been touring behind his second solo album, Apocalyptic Love. Current single "Standing In The Sun" is Number Five this week on the rock radio chart.

CHECK IT OUT: Watch the full episode of Pawn Stars and go to the 8:40 mark to see the Slash driver's license segment at http://tinyurl.com/ct8u9u7

DROWNING POOL BASSIST CALLS SINGER CHANGES ‘FORCED EVOLUTION’:
Drowning Pool bassist Stevie Benton spoke with Noisecreep about the band's latest lead singer, Jasen Moreno, and how having four frontman over the course of 12 years has
impacted the group's chemistry. Benton explained, "Well, it's a forced
form of band evolution, I would say, certainly not something you strive for and
not something that I would advise other bands to do, because it's a lot of
extra work and it's hard on you at times . . . Look, sometimes you have to
shift gears and I'm sure some of our ex-singers feel the same way: 'I can't
wait to get the hell out of here.'"

  • Moreno replaces Ryan McCombs, who cut two studio albums with the band during
         his six-year stint, which ended in late 2011.
  • Before McCombs, vocalist Jason "Gong" Jones recorded one album with the
         group. Original frontman Dave
         Williams died in 2002 from heart disease.
  • Benton added, "One thing we have learned is that
         each singer has strong points and weak points and we've learned to craft
         the sound of the band that will benefit the singer at the time."
  • The members of Drowning Pool have known new
         singer Moreno for years since both he and the band hail from Dallas.
  • Drowning Pool has released a video for the song
         "Saturday Night," from the band's upcoming fifth album. The disc
         is due out in early 2013. Moreno made his live debut as a member of Drowning
         Pool last July at a club show in Oklahoma.

CHECK IT OUT: Watch the video for "Saturday Night":

 

ROCK QUICK HITS

 

  • Veteran rockers Saliva have signed a new deal with Rum Bum Records, an independent label based in South Florida. The band will enter the studio in January 2013 to begin recording a new album for a late spring release. The disc will mark the debut of vocalist Bobby Amaru, who replaced founding member Josey Scott last year after the latter embarked on a solo career in Christian music. Saliva's last album, Under The Skin, came out in 2011 and featured the Top Five rock single "Never
         Should've Let You Go." (Blabbermouth)
  • Christian rockers Red will issue their fourth album, titled Release The Panic, on February 5th. The first single from the disc will be called "Perfect Life." The new disc
         will be available in standard and deluxe editions, with the latter containing five bonus tracks. Red will head out on the Winter Jam tour in January to preview songs from the record, followed by a spring headlining run. Release The Panic follows up 2011's Until We Have Faces. (Alternative Addiction)
  • Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus has launched his own clothing line called My Name Is Mark. The line will offer four limited edition T-shirts, which are slated to arrive one per week for the next four weeks. Each tee will be for sale for just seven days or until it sells out. The first shirt is available now on My Name Is Mark's website and features the line's logo: a picture of an octopus. Blink-182, meanwhile, will release its new independent EP, dogs eating dogs, on December 18th directly through the band's website. Check out Hoppus' new venture at www.himynameismark.com  (Audio Ink)

AEROSMITH BASSIST DECLARES HE’S CANCER-FREE: Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton has declared that he's cancer free, according to Gibson.com.  Hamilton, who was diagnosed in 2006 with both throat and tongue cancer, battled back against the disease only to see it return in 2009. Now, Hamilton finally received a clean bill of health.  Hamilton passed the good news on to BackstageAxxess.com, saying, "I'm feeling really good. The doctor who treated me in 2009 said, 'Listen, I can help you in a way that is going to preserve your way of life.  But you're going to have to come in here a lot afterwards for a long time.' I said, 'Sign me up!' I go in there about every two to three months. I get looked at by having the doctor put a scope down my throat. It's a nerve-wracking process, but I don't have to worry about it for a couple of months and I'm feeling great."

  • Aerosmith and Cheap Trick tour dates (subject to change):

             December 1 - Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena

         December 3 - Los Angeles, CA - STAPLES Center

         December 6 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Arena

         December 9 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - BB&T Center

         December 11 - Tampa, FL - Tampa Bay Times Forum

         December 13 - Nashville, TN - Bridgestone Arena

CBS GREENLIGHTS STEPHEN KING SERIES: CBS has given a 13-episode series order to Under The Dome based on Stephen King's 2009 best-selling novel. It will be produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television.

'SPARTACUS' SPINOFF A POSSIBILITY FOR STARZ: Deadline is reporting that Starz is considering a spinoff of Spartacus which is reportedly going to be about Roman leader Gaius
Julius Caesar. The upcoming Spartacus: War of the Damned will be the series' third and final season.

NASA: THE WORLD IS NOT ENDING ON 12/21/2012: At a recent press conference, NASA scientists addressed rumors surrounding the Mayan calendar. Scientists say
people misinterpret the end of a certain cycle on the calendar to mean the world will end on December 21st, 2012, and that Mayan scholars say the Mayans would not have interpreted the date to signal the apocalypse. Scientists addressed popular rumors such as: a rogue planet will collide with earth and kill everyone, and the danger of killer solar flares. Scientists say neither of those issues are a concern, and that the greatest threat to Earth in the
foreseeable future is from the human race itself. (Huffington Post)

WOMEN PREFER THIN MEN TO MACHO MEN, STUDY SHOWS: For a new study, scientists from the University of Petoria in South Africa photographed a group of male volunteers in their underwear and then measured the men's body fat, testosterone levels, and immune system responses. The photographs were shown to different groups of women, and scientists found that women unconsciously see fatness or thinness as indicators of a man's immune response and attractiveness, while masculinity was not linked to either of those traits. Scientists say this means a masculine jaw and chiseled abs aren't always what women are looking for, at least consciously, when choosing a male mate. (Fox News)

FOUR WAYS TO COMBAT A HANGOVER (Fox News)

1) Stay Hydrated. The main problem when you have a hangover? The alcohol you drank
dehydrated you. So, you are left feeling thirsty, sleepy and even light-headed.
Replenish some of that lost moisture with lots of water.

2) Eat Bananas. This will replace some of the potassium and magnesium that you lost. Lack of magnesium is linked to fatigue and loss of appetite.Bananas will also ease nausea, because they act as a natural antacid.

3) Ginger. Grind up some ginger. This root will soothe your stomach. You can eat it raw, drink it in tea - or take capsules.

4) Asparagus. Studies show this green vegetable breaks down alcohol in your system. So make sure to eat some with your dinner before a night out.

WHICH TECH COMPANIES DOMINATED BLACK FRIDAY? Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over now, so which tech companies had the best luck with consumers? According to
Apple sales figures, Apple iPads sold better than Android tablets. For gaming-- the Wii U sold-out completely from retailers despite having less-than stellar reviews. The Microsoft Surface may have suffered the most - while Apple stores saw customsters purchasing 17.2-items-per-hour, Microsoft stores sold only 3.5-items-per-hour in sales. (Ask Men)

34 COOL TECH TOYS: http://tinyurl.com/d79vn46

EIGHT WAYS TO HANDLE THE HOLIDAY BLUES (The Frisky)

1) Make your own traditions. Don't be afraid to celebrate how you want to celebrate, whether that means replacing old traditions with new ones, or adding some new traditions to your current holiday schedule.

2) Help someone out. However you choose to it, helping other people is guaranteed to give you a boost of positive energy.

3) Free yourself from obligations that don't feel right to you. Take a step back from the things that you've always done and reassess if they are actually what you want to be doing. Make sure you're spending your precious time, energy, and money in the way you want to, and don't be afraid to change your roles. People will understand.

4) Get away. Winter weather and being stuck indoors can spark one of the scenery in your life. Just spending a day wandering around a small town just outside your city can be enough to break your tired routine and rejuvenate you.

5) Reconnect with people. Set up a weekly happy hour with coworkers or invite a couple of friends over to watch a movie. If that feels like too much, write a letter to a far-away family member. No matter how you do it, reinforcing your connections with people will help you feel less alone.

6) Get some sun. In the winter time, even though the sun is frequently hard to spot between weather and less daylight you can still reap the benefits of some sunshine. The sun's invisible rays can penetrate through weather! Give yourself five or ten minutes before work or on your lunch break to walk around outside and get some air - you'll feel better.

7) Go to the library. Books are a great way to get you out of your own head and your own world. Take advantage of the crappy weather by curling up with a blanket, a hot cup of tea, and a stack of new reading material.

8) Give yourself a break. If your holiday schedule could be described as "Go! Go! Go!," give yourself permission to stop every once in awhile.  Take a breath, eat a piece of fudge, and remember: if you want to take care of other people, you've gotta take care of yourself first.