Please follow the link below to oppose the bills before congress so that they DO NOT PASS. They will hurt small business and could even shut down twitter, youtube, ect.


Give your vote today!




http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/




+Joshua Hastings
 @joshuadavid1121
www.MassAuthentics.Ecrater.com
http://massauthentics.tumblr.com/

Dodgers say Brian Stow is party to blame for ruthless beating that left him in a coma for days

“

They are saying we're 100 percent liable. But does that mean Norwood and Sanchez, who beat this guy up, have no liability? And, does it mean Mr. Stow himself has no liability?

”-- Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's
lawyer Jerome Jackson





Talk about a public relations gaffe, Frank McCourt is going to wish he had just put his foot in his mouth, personally I think by the time this is over he's going to feel the way that Dodgers fans have felt watching the team he put together play on the field, sick. Hopefully McCourt isn't the owner of this franchise much longer, he's already done just about as much damage as he possibly court between his shady behind the scenes dealings to garner money to cover expenses, to the public divorce with his wife Frank McCourt has shown us what type of owner he is.


After I read this quote I can promise you this, I would never EVER for the rest of my life go to a Dodgers game, watch a Dodgers game or even check out Dodgers scores until that asshole is gone. Any venture, company, business, ect that he is involved with is not an option as far as i'm concerned. What does that mean to him? Absolutely NOTHING. I'm sure he could care less what the fans like me think. That's exactly what got him to be so loved in the first place.


 He doesn't care about the city of Las Angeles, he doesn't care about the ppl of L.A., he doesn't care about the fans at the ballpark CLEARLY, and he doesn't even care about his own family for that matter. Check out the entire story below from ESPN where this quote first was reported. Unless I find out this is a complete falsity and he said nothing of the sort, i'm done with Frank McCourt and the Dodgers....I'm a Red Sox fan first but there's always going to be a few other teams I really enjoy and one of the first memories of baseball I have is my father showing me stats and photos while telling me about Jackie Robinson and i'll never forget that. He must be rolling over in his grave right now. DISGRACEFUL.


What do you think about Frank's opinion on what transpired outside his ballpark?? You think the victim was asking for it??? That's just like saying that a girl is asking to be raped because she's wearing tight jeans....Frank your 2 generations ahead of me but an entire century behind as far as i'm concerned!







http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/7155602/los-angeles-dodgers-lawyer-bryan-stow-shares-blame-beating









+Joshua Hastings
 @joshuadavid1121
www.MassAuthentics.Ecrater.com
 http://massauthentics.tumblr.com/

Charity Swearbox, a Twitter Swear Jar for a Good Cause

Charity Swearbox, a Twitter Swear Jar for a Good Cause:

From my Google +1 post below:

Joshua Hastings - 7:46 PM - Public

What a great idea, no matter what charity you choose, giving money or time to a non-profit organization is a great thing....it's not about how much you put in more then everyone else, well it is to some ppl and whatever it's cool with me, i'll give you the proverbial "stroke" of that ego and you can tell everyone how much money you have and all the places you donated, the point is, your helping out veterans, the homeless, animals, kids, women, men, ect, whatever organization it is. I really do wish that more of these "celebrities" would take this to heart and do something with the godless, insane, ridiculous, crazy, incredible, excessive, amounts of money that they make of "normal" ppl like all of us watching them wherever they go, reading about them in tabloits. We are the reason they can demand 50k appearance fees to host a night at a bar/nightclub to draw more of us in, or to host a new years eve party and get a cool 1 million for 3 hours or drinking and dancing then MAYBE singing one or 2 songs(if there a singer not cause there drunk), staying in your sanctuary private VIP room where none of us minions can talk to you or GIVE YOU A HUG? HELL NO. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ASKING ME A QUESTION LIKE THAT? Do you realize what this shirt cost me? don't do it, dont. "$1127" He did it. What kind of loser actually tells other ppl what he paid for a shirt....i'll tell you a rich asshole who doesn't donate to charity.

Charity Swearbox, a Twitter Swear Jar for a Good Cause

Charity Swearbox is a virtual swear jar that encourages Twitter users to donate to their favorite charity every time they drop a tweet bomb (video). The site was created by James Dow, Rameet Chawla......

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+Joshua Hastings

@joshuadavid1121

www.MassAuthentics.Ecrater.com

http://massauthentics.tumblr.com/

College Basketball Recruiting Changes Coming Soon to your door!

Details on proposed recruiting changes - Dave Telep Blog Blog - ESPN:

'via Blog this'

Whether its Twitter, Facebook, Google, Tumblr, Email, Text, Phone call, official visit, unofficial visit, Good Ol Roy Williams stopping by your AAU tournament because of the assistants talking up this beast of a kid James McAdoo or Duke's assistants giving Coach K the go ahead to see Austin Rivers and after 1 look he knew that he needed the kid. The thing is the NCAA has more rules then they know what to do with, a series lack of control over them, with compliance departments consistently talking about being understaffed what do you expect? Then, you have the problem that some of the rules that you have are so arbitrary and outdated that they don't even apply in this day in age. It's just like the original laws written for the colonies in the east. There are laws in the books saying it's illegal to walk your cows on Sundays on main street, or something to that effect. WHAT? Well, back then, church was still Sunday but there was only 1 that everyone went to, so you couldn't have the local farmer walking 200 cows through the town. Does that still apply to Alexandria Virginia now? HAHA, I laugh at the thought of the Cavaliers student body herding sheep through campus and being arrested.


 Laws need to be amended to fit with society and development. It's the same idea with some of these rules, there's no point in limiting the number of emails a coach can send during the offseason or during the season ect anymore because that's not how kids are communicating. Social Networking has changed the corse of college athletics and therefor college recruiting. Either the coaches will step up and adjust and adapt to the new environment or they will get left behind. I can think of 1 coach in college right now that really exemplifies "Old School" and that's Joe Paterno from the Penn State Nitney Lions football team. The man holds the record for college football wins, and continues to add to it with each victory and his legacy has been cemented for the past 20 years. Ok, back to basketball though.

Proposed Rules That Are Most Important In My Opinion:

Changing all of April's events to not count towards the 7 official contacts that you have total for the year which would allow coaches to see as many players, teams at as many events as possible to get a better idea of whether a player either is right for the team and also to see if the team is right for the player. 

June 15th is the big one. After that date during a prospects sophmore year in high school the battles begin for the upper tier talent. For the next 2.5 years these young men will be told how great they are, how they are going to be developed into a star and go onto fame and fortune in the NBA. This is why it's important for prospects to have a support system that they can trust and count on has there best interest in their hearts. College basketball is BIG BUSINESS NOW AND IF ANYONE SAYS DIFFERENT THEIR LYING. PERIOD. Coaches pay raises depend on wins and loses, contract bonuses, extensions, as well as the athletic director with all the same things but he's gotta worry about all the sports and hope it's not bad everywhere and he's the one put in the FIRING LINE.  And Assistant Coaches are in the unenviable position of being at the bottom of the totem pole. They don't make decisions on who to make offers to, they make suggestions. It's their fault when a player doesn't commit though, it seems like the coach gets the credit when the teams get a big signee but when they miss out on one it's the assistant coach that the kid didn't feel comfortable with, or he didn't like the "style of play".

Unlimited contacts in July for so coaches will be texting and calling up a storm. See, this one is the one that stands out to me. July is the kids off time, it's their summer away from school. Yes, they are at this point basically working already because the next few years will be his foundation for where he attends college which involves how much publicity and exposure he gets, playing time, and level of perceived quality to develop players that will be NBA ready. I think texts is going to be the big one. Players all have cell phones by then just like every other high school kid in the country so it's not like they can go out to dinner and a movie with the girlfriend to "get away" and clear their head, come home and check their email to see which coaches had something to say today. No, now there could be a priority recruit that has an assistant coach assigned to be contacting him at specific times every day all day for all of the days possible throughout the next 2.5 years. Ok and use someone like this years #1 prospect, Shabazz Mohammed; he is the most important piece that's out there and a lot of programs have been watching hime. Now imagine those 30 text messages he's getting from that assistant we already talked about, now multiply that times the 17 coaches that are trying to get him. That's 595 text messages! AND THAT'S EVERYDAY! For yearsssssssssss. Would you want that? I know that I wouldn't, even if he trimms it to 3 teams say, that's still 105 texts besides the girls and friends he's already going to be texting. He's got schoolwork, Sat's, final exams and making their school choice is a life altering decision and now they have all these adults in their ear telling them where they should go. That's why as I mentioned earlier, SUPPORT SYSTEM. Whether it's 2 parents together, a mother, father, grandma, aunt, cousin or coach. There has to be someone that you and your family can look in the eye and trust when he says, well, coach x from y def has your best interest in mind so that a positive.

Player's and their (2) parents or guardians travel expenses can now be paid for by the school for the official visits. This is another big one because it was happening one way or another anyways, it needed to be brought out into the light somehow and by allowing the school to publically cover necessary charges it only makes sense. Think about it like this....these schools are trying to recruit these kids to come and play for them from anywhere from 1 year to 4 years depending on how the minimum rookie age requirement ends up after the NBA lockout. Maybe the kid is open to whoever wants him thats out of his home state of Florida because he wants to live away from home and have fun/grow up. Well, there are 8 schools interested in him playing for them so after thinking he cuts his list down to 5, with schools in California, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. Schools assistants are calling daily trying to set up this official visit but this player just keeps making excuses why he can't come this day and then that day all because he is embarassed that he cant even afford the plane ticket to South Carolina let alone home and that's the CLOSEST of the five schools. His mom is already working 55 hours a week just to keep the apartment paid up and the lights on and because he's been playing AAU every offseason he literally has no time with travel practices and games to help out himself. This is where these shady characters start coming around and we wonder why these kids fall prey. Actually we seem to blame those kids most of the time when in reality they arn't even doing anything that the same middle class recruit in the Northeast is doing, it's just that the kid from Maine has a lawyer for a dad that's paying for all the camps, recruiting trips, food, lodging, ect. Why shouldn't this kid have the same chances that everyone else is getting? He's worked just as hard, maybe even harder considering that he had 3/10 of the resources the other kid had, no basketball court for 5 miles within his house, he didn't have a dad to build a full size court in the back yard for pickup games. 


All i'm saying is i'm glad some changes are being made but there still needs to be more, just like anything worth anything in life it's a process and it takes time.....but these kids are our future, THEY ARE WORTH IT!





+Joshua Hastings
@joshuadavid1121
www.MassAuthentics.Ecrater.com
http://massauthentics.tumblr.com/

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft interview piece and my take

Soundbites from Robert Kraft - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston:

'via Blog this'

Kraft is probably one of the most prepared and influential owners in all of football so when he says that the increased amount of minor injuries that have occurred so far this season are a result of a lack of offseason in the typical form it's just understood.

When Kraft talks about how great of a guy welker is and how incredible he has been to come back from that injury and regain his pro bowl form it just really seems like he's buttering him up for another of those patriots patented low-ball offers they are so known for. I really really hope they don't alienate this guy though, he has been nothing but a consummate professional from day 1, busted his ass to get back from the injury quicker then anyone could have imagined and has regained his pro bowl form while putting up another record breaking statistical year. He is not out to break the bank and you can just tell that by listening to him talk for 20 minutes, since he's came to the Pats from lowly Miami he's found a home that's fit him perfectly, there is something called "the patriot way" and your either programmed that way or your not, there isn't one guy i've seen other then Corey Dillon come in clearly with some problems and leave a happy content man. Moss went from problem to amazing back to problem and now he's proposed to Bellicheck and Brady both i think multiple times in the last years since he was let go. I don't get it, but whatever you see what i'm saying. 


What do you think Welker's offer should be? I propose 4 years 35 million and go to 40 if he needs it to stay cause he's not going to ask anyways.

+Joshua Hastings

@joshuadavid1121

www.MassAuthentics.Ecrater.com

http://massauthentics.tumblr.com/

http://youtu.be/h49uzj-UD6o


FullTilt Poker is planning on hosting a $30 million dollar poker tournament at Wembley Stadium now that they finally are out of the incompetant/greedy/deceptive/thieving hands of past owners that have been charged with a number of felonies and sold to new ownership. There are a number of people including myself who have money tied up in the full tilt poker mess. Since the government froze all of the assets there are thousands of ppl in a state of limbo with their funds tied up unable to be accessed.

The oddities and unique qualities of this event have started to be dissected now that more details are available such as the fact of it being held in Wembley Stadium which in and of itself is a quite amazing quality and draw for participants but the first rounds will be played online. YES, I SAID IT, THE FIRST ROUNDS WILL ACTUALLY BE PLAYED FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD....anywhere you have a connection you have a chance to be the next multi-millionaire to gain stardom in the poker circuit. Think it's going to favor the younger generation who has played millions and millions of hands in a few years while there are veterans who have played 20 years and not amassed that many? Will the older bracelet holders be able to hold on during the online portion so that they make it to the felt? Once on the felt does the pengellum swing back towards the grizzled veterans or is it now a young mans game regardless?

This is obviously a huge attention grab for Full Tilt to gain back some fans and players since they were previously shut down for mismanagement of player funds. Many will never think of them in the same light again, some are waiting to see how the money situation is handled before they come to a decision and some are willing to move on because the new owners didnt do anything wrong, they acutally helped by purchasing Full Tilt and getting everyone back to their online poker room and the benefits that come with it. In my opinion Full Tilt had some of the best available features such as prizes, point system was by far the best for player appreciation/rewards and games were constructed well.

Personally, i'm willing to give these new owners a shot and am excited that i will get to see full tilt back up and running again. I don't have anywhere near the funds to play in the Wembley stadium event but someday i plan on playing in the world series of poker and hopefully on the circuit but we can talk about that another time....hope to see you all online someday, good luck to all.....

+Joshua Hastings
@joshuadavid1121
www.MassAuthentics.Ecrater.com
 http://massauthentics.tumblr.com/

How A 21-Year-Old Design Student's Sleeping-Bag Coat Could Break The Cycle Of Homelessness | Fast Company

Ever go to a Boston Celtics game in the dead of winter, driving through a blizzard to get there, heat blasting, drinking a hot chocolate or having some imbibes to warm you up a little bit having a good time? Then you get into the city, starting heading into the parking garage because why pay $15 to park and have to shovel out your car and then clean it off when it's only $5 more to be in a semi-heated, nice building thats next to the Boston Garden and you can walk to and from the game with all the other fans even. Before the game you get to get outta the snow if your early and go to a bar to play some pool/have a little food with the friends, it down around 0 degrees and that's during the day so by the time the games out and your heading to car just the 3 minute walk and your ears are red and so cold their numb, lips hurt, your face feels like it's burning when you turn the car heat one but in a matter of 5-10 minutes your nice and warm on your way to your house where it's a warm 70 inside and your comforter is ready with your wife keeping the even warmer. 

Ok now let's think about someone that's homeless right now in that same situation minus the money for that hot chocolate you had to keep your hands warm, or the nice warm clothing you wore to walk from the car to bar/game/back car. For your big trek outside you've got a t-shirt, long sleeve, sweatshirt and then a coat on top, then a hat on your head, maybe a scarf+gloves even(not something I wear but it's pretty common in boston).
I bet from that parking garage to the door is maybe a 150 yard walk. 

Now I talk about all of this because there is a homeless man that sleeps in the doorway of this building that is either closed or unoccupied and it has been off and on for the past few years or at least there has been "a" doorway to sleep in around that area for a while now, and that's where this man has made his winter home. I'm guessing he chooses this type of place because then he's shielded from the wind on at least 50%. This is where I've seen him half laying(there obviously not enough room to "lay down") and half sitting on a few occasions. I've often thought of him during storms throughout the year, whenever it's raining hard or a perticularily cold night. Given I live in South Deerfield which is in western mass but you get the idea, if it's cold here it's pretty cold in Boston probably too. The point is I gave this guy a few bucks once or twice when he asked politely(which he always does, he doesn't ask twice, he isn't rude if you say no, even if you ignore him and act like he's not a human being(which ive seen many more then i'd like to admit) he's simply shifts his eyes down the street hoping the next passerby has a kind heart or has a thing for underdressed middle aged men unshaven and hungry. I make a joke of it but this really isn't funny at all, i'm uncomfortable, i'm sad, i'm angry, i'm empathetic, i'm confused, all at the same time.

Homelessness is at an all-time high if you listen to the news and it's becoming an epidemic in some cities where it's brought despair and a split among residents. Some have a feeling of frustration because others plight is effecting the overall athsthetic qualities of their neighborhood, bringing home values down in some situations, others take a more proactive approach, volunteering at shelters, donating extra canned food to pantry's, giving clothing, blankets, there is a lot that everyone can do to help and they don't even realize it. I know that there are some of you that are not in the best money situation yourself. Just think of it this way, no matter what your going through, there is someone out there that has already been through the same thing, and there is ALWAYS, and I really do mean ALWAYS someone that has it worse then you. If your reading this then your on some type of electronic device where there is also an internet connection, and trust me if your doing that, there are a lot of ppl worse off then you. 

Now, let's talk about some of the things we can do, i'm talking about hard working everyday people that have bills to pay, kids to clothe, mouths to feed and the bank account isn't exactly overflowing with too much green. Little things matter, little things are important, little things go a long way towards making someone who is down on their luck be just comfortable enough in the freezing new england weather that they can at least get a few hours of shut eye, that there stomach isn't so empty from hunger that they can't even get 1 minute of sleep. Find your local food pantry and commit yourself to donating 10 canned good each time you go grocery shopping. That's $5-$10 and sometimes even less if you get the ones with dents/dings which look awful tasty to a person who hasn't eaten in 3 days. If you go shopping twice a month then your spending maybe $10 out of the average $1000-$1500 your pay is if your making minimum wage and working full-time in massachusetts. Obviously this isn't exact and there is different min wage in other states but you should get my point, it's a small fraction of what you take home and instead of one more scratch ticket, having 2 less beers when your out with your friends once or 3 gallons less of gas, IN AN ENTIRE MONTH. Come on people that's nothing and thats a huge help to that pantry. If everyone did this, they'd have more then enough, much more then enough, the problem is everything says there going to and doesn't, or wants to and forgets.

 Let's all step up and be one of the good ones, maybe even one of the great ones, if you can afford to do other things too then even better, sadly, every problem run basically right now has a severe shortage by the middle of winter and they are flat out by then end. There are programs that give winter clothes to homeless veterans to help with those freezing conditions, go through your closet and donate the things you don't wear anymore. Ladies here's your chance to get rid of that sweet bomber leather jacket your husband had that was cool in high school and way too tight now that he tries to wear everytime you go out, gloves that you never used because you didn't like the color, that sweater your gram bought you that has raindeer on it and you pretended to love it but your never going to wear it out in public, shit you won't even put it on just incase one of your kids sneaks around the corner with a camera. DONATE WHAT YOU DONT USE, SOMEONE ELSE OUT THERE WILL MAKE NOT ONLY GOOD USE OF IT AND WEAR IT THE ONCE A MONTH MAYBE YOU WOULD IF YOU LIKED IT BUT THEY MAY NEED IT SO MUCH IT'S WORN EVERYDAY AND EVERY NIGHT!

These are just a few small things we can do that could possibly even save a life, your not going to see the difference your making but I can tell you, YOUR DOING THE RIGHT THING. If you want validation then email me and i'll write a post about what you did even. Better yet, go to that food pantry and offer to help pass out some of that food that you brought in, you'll get paid better then you'd ever imagined.....with some incredible stories(some sad, some confusing, some you won't believe and some you shouldn't believe) with some smiles and with more then 1 "THANK YOU". That right there is your validation, that should be something you pass on to your kids, friends, family. Let them know how good it felt, spread that and then maybe one more person doesn't go hungry in your city and it goes and goes.....


The story below is pretty incredible, it started off as a school project but when the year ended and it wasn't actually completed and something tangable she ventured on, failed, stepped back, started back fixing what she needed and continued over and over until it's now something that is literally going to save lives all over the city in year 1. She has bigger idea's though, eventually she wants it to be a self sustaining project that is in a big enough building that she can provide shelter for the women working to make the jackets while they are making minimum wage and getting their lives back on track, this will help provide a stable environment for that adjustment period between the street/shelter cycle that continues on and on and hopefully ends with street/shelter/"The Detroit Empowerment Plan"/then finally back to independent living. She is helping to break that awful cycle of homelessness. These jackets/sleeping bags are made by homeless women who are paid minimum wage while they are living in the Detroit shelter and they are given away for free to the community homeless population which numbers 20,000 strong through her funding efforts which were made possible with the help of local and national media catching wind of this story. The redesigned coat that is now the final version after multiple tries at other designs. This version is called Element-S which is self heated, waterproof and turns into a sleeping bag at night which keeps you warm from trapping and using the built up heat produced. 

Check out the article for yourself, its amazing to see what someone can do if they put their mind to it, never stop moving and do what you can. I don't write this to guilt you, I know that everyone wants to help it's just a matter of putting a plan into action. Figure out what you can do and try it for a month, if it doesn't work try something else, just do what you can, someday you may be in their shoes and hopefully i'll walk by and give you a hand.....




How A 21-Year-Old Design Student's Sleeping-Bag Coat Could Break The Cycle Of Homelessness | Fast Company:


'via Blog this'

+Joshua Hastings
@joshuadavid1121
www.MassAuthentics.Ecrater.com
http://massauthentics.tumblr.com/

Can the Rangers make the Cardinals their next victim or is Puljos going to continue to add to his legacy with the 2011 World Series Championship

+Joshua Hastings
 @joshuadavid1121
 www.MassAuthentics.Ecrater.com
 http://massauthentics.tumblr.com/

While the Cardinals continue to win the games there supposed to win it's the Rangers who have gotten some great pitching performances from some of their more unheralded pitchers. Just when you think they could be on the brink of being susceptible to being in that definative position of losing that game and in the hole nearly impossible to climb out of they bring their hard hats and go to work. If they hadn't won game 2 they would have been in the unenvyable 2-0 hole, nearly identical game was game 4. Derek Holland pitched a crucial game where a loss would have meant 3-1 and a loss away from vacation in disney world....but not the I just won the trophy so let's go to DISNEY WORLD! kind of thing. It would have been the "honey pack up the kids, were going to go have some fun at disney so I can get away from Texas ASAP.

In some of the more surprising performances, the bats or Cruz and Napoli have carried the Texas while the expected pitching of Chris Carpenter has kept the Cardinals one step ahead most of this series. So will it be the Rangers bats waking up tonight and putting the pressue on the Cardinals for once or will Carpenter add another gem to his list of pitching performances this world series and put an earlier then expected trip to see Disney in the back of some Rangers fans minds?

Love to hear your game 5 and world series predictions so leave your comments....i'll tell you who i'm picking too!