Dwight Howard fined $35,000 for blogging

"Ya'll know that that series against Charlotte drove me crazy. I mean it was almost comical at times how I was getting fouls called on me. There was nothing I could do out there and I felt like I couldn't even move without getting that whistle blown on me.

I'm not looking to say anything to get myself in trouble with the league, but I just don't see other star players getting called for fouls the way I get them. No star player in the league is outta games the way I am. I even talked to Pat Ewing about his career and he said he never had foul trouble like what I'm going through."

To be fair to Dwight, if sweating were a foul, Patrick Ewing would understand where Dwight is coming from. But since sweating profusely is legal, this is a situation where "Foul On You" is flying solo. And that means he's paying his fine all by himself.

Yep, $35,000 just for posting on the Internet. David Stern is not messing around. Between this fine, and those for Stan Van Gundy and Matt Barnes earlier in the playoffs, the NBA has made a cool $105k since David Stern challenged complainers to "make my day." Sounds like the Magic need to NetFlix "Dirty Harry."

Trey Kerby - Yahoo

California ranked having poorest air quality

So living in LA, I'm pretty sure almost every resident knows of this but it's just something I wanted to post. Quote-"Sunny areas like Los Angeles face the harmful effects of ozone year-round. In fact, the Los Angeles metro is named the country's worst for ozone by the American Lung Association's State of the Air 2010 report, released Wednesday. The ranking is worrisome for the city's residents because inhaling ozone is akin to "getting a sunburn on your airways," says Dr. Norman H. Edelman, the ALA's chief medical officer. Philly Other California metros didn't fare much better: Bakersfield, Visalia, Fresno and Sacramento round out the five worst regions for ozone. The problem is statewide because of both California's exposure to sunlight and a natural geography that allows pollution to hover rather than diffuse to other areas, says Janice Nolen, the ALA's assistant vice president for policy and advocacy." Yahoo

Bodega x Converse Poorman Weapon

Bodega and Converse have once again joined forces – this time to re-imagine the Poorman Weapon as a sophisticated beast yet unseen by the world. Transforming the original silhouette into a super high-top that can be worn rolled down, the focus of this project was to achieve harmony between the chosen materials. An extra high refined waxed canvas upper is paired with a supple deerskin lining to make this Poorman’s Weapon seem not quite so poor. The natural properties of deerskin leather shine with its extremely high strength and resistance to abrasion. Generally used for motorcycle gloves, deerskin’s unique fiber structure keeps you cool at high noon and warm as night falls. The charcoal colorway keeps this forward thinking shoe toned down, while a gusseted tongue and waxed laces combined with the leather’s inherent water repellent qualities keep it an all weather shoe.

A release is set for Saturday, March 13th at Bodega. The shoe will come in a custom ballistic nylon case lined with shearling. An etched flask will be included for those over 21 years of age. This pack retails for $120 USD, is limited to 100 sets and contains all the elements necessary for surviving the long winter and wet spring.

HypeBeast

Steve Jobs: Why Apple doesn't support Flash

"Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Thursday said 200,000 applications are available in his company's mobile app store - and they all benefit because they're not built in Flash.

In a post on Apple's website, Jobs listed reasons none of those apps support Flash, a format that supports video, animation, games and other content and is made by tech competitor Adobe.

Some tech bloggers have criticized Apple for not supporting Flash on its mobile devices, including the iPad, iPhone and iPod. But Jobs said Adobe Flash is a format for the past.

Performance, not business strategy, guides Apple's decision not to use the format, he said.

"Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice," he wrote in the post. "Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short."

Adobe has complained its business "could be harmed" by Apple's decision not to use the format.

Jobs listed several specific reasons Apple doesn't use Flash. Some of the more interesting ones:

_ "iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video," he wrote.

_Apple products run more reliably without Flash: "Flash is the number one reason Macs crash."

_Flash isn't made for touch-screen devices: "... Many Flash websites rely on 'rollovers,' which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot." Apple's touch screens don't use rollovers.

_And, most important, Jobs said, is that Flash slows down app development: " We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers."

What do you think? Is Jobs right, or should Apple support Flash on its devices?" Kudos to CNN.

iPhone 4G set for June 7th

"Apple announced the dates Wednesday of its Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company is expected to introduce a new iPhone (even though tech blog Gizmodo may have spoiled the surprise).

Taking place June 7 to June 11 at San Francisco’s Moscone West convention hall, the five-day conference includes hands-on sessions for software developers to become familiar with iPhone OS 4 and Mac OS X. In previous WWDC events, Apple has announced new products during a keynote presentation that kicks off the conference.

Apple announced new iPhones during both WWDC 2008 and WWDC 2009, so we expect the introduction of a fourth-generation iPhone. Because the conference is software-centric, we can also expect more details about the next iPhone operating system, iPhone OS 4, which was previewed in early April.

Meanwhile, the tech community is still bubbling with a mixture of excitement and anger over Gizmodo’s publication of a lost iPhone prototype, which many believe is a near-final version of that fourth-generation iPhone. Apple engineer Gray Powell reportedly left the iPhone in a bar, which was retrieved by an individual who later sold the device to Gizmodo. The tech blog published photos and videos of the device and later returned it to Apple.

Police have since launched an investigation on the case of the missing iPhone, which involved raiding the house of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen and seizing his electronic equipment — an action whose validity is being disputed. Wired.com’s Threat Level reported Tuesday that police have identified the finder of the phone, but a name has not yet been disclosed to the public." - WIRED

Wired

Whitney Houston bombs in London

She's been through a lot. We all know that. This is just terrible. She has to stop, watch the tapes and just call it quits. If I were her producer, I would have her try and regain some of her voice and then get back on the tour wagon. Not being prepared to perform after how many years is just destroying the image and sound that we all remember from back in the day. @3:25 she just completely butchers the song. The audience comments and reactions say it all. It's too sad to watch, I couldn't finish this video. -SG

FabLife