7 reasons why Jersey Shore gets boring

Okay, before you go labeling us "haterz," let us explain. We've been loyal viewers of "Jersey Shore" since the beginning, back when The Situation was just plain old Mike. And yes, the first two seasons of "Shore" were highly watchable, highly quotable reality-TV gold. But in Season 3, MTV's monster hit has seemingly run out of gas, becoming repetitive, tiresome, and (the most unforgivable sin for a reality show) dull as dirt. Here, we run down the ways "Shore" has lost our interest — and offer a few tips on how the show can win us back with the upcoming, Italy-based Season 4.


The housemates are too famous for their own good

In just over a year, the "Shore" cast has rocketed to immense fame and fortune; even our moms know who Snooki is. Yet the show insists on pretending they're still just your average Jersey goofballs, so editors wipe any mention of the gang's notoriety off the show. As a result, "Shore" now feels strangely neutered, like we're not getting the whole story. We can only hope that sending the cast to Italy will help them blend in again and recapture some of that original spark — unless MTV Italia gets "Shore" already.



They've been stuck inside all season

With the gang's overwhelming fame driving them behind closed doors, this season has played out like a claustrophobic Jersey version of "Big Brother." The housemates have been bored out of their minds, forced to kill time waging silly prank wars and unclogging toilets — not exactly compelling storylines. In fact, the season's only consistent source of drama has been so overplayed, we can't stand to watch it for another minute. Which leads us to our next point...


We have Ronnie-and-Sammi fatigue

During yet another Ronnie-Sammi fight this season, Vinny commented, "This must be what hell is like." Amen, Vinny. After witnessing an infinite number of breakups and makeups (and a few hundred dollars' worth of broken furniture), we are more than ready to get off the Ronnie-Sammi rollercoaster. We all know bickering couples like that in real life; we'd just rather not spend an hour each week with them.



The Situation has gone from "likable jerk" to just a jerk

When we first met him, Sitch's constant ab flashing and casual chauvinism seemed charming somehow. (Admit it, you liked him too.) But now that we've spent three seasons with the guy, we can say this without hesitation: The guy is a grade-A jerk. He treats the women he brings home like garbage, he brazenly lies about how many of those girls he's actually hooked up with, and he inserts himself into other people's drama to get more screen time. Now we know why everyone else in the house seems to hate him.


They've ran out of catchphrases

We cherish the linguistic nuggets "Shore" has bestowed upon us thus far. Season 1 gave us "GTL" and "grenades"; Season 2 followed up with "T-shirt time" and "Cabs are here!" But sadly, it seems the Seaside quote machine is on the fritz this season; all we get now are tired retreads of their greatest hits. Can't MTV hire some writers to get in there and punch up the dialogue? Because the Shore Store needs some new phrases to iron onto their muscle Ts.


Deena is no Angelina
Deena was insulted when Vinny called her "Angelina" in the finale, but the comment just made us realize how much we actually miss Angelina. Say what you want about the former housemate (it can't be worse than calling her "the Staten Island Dump"), but at least she brought some conflict to the otherwise lovey-dovey "Shore" house. Meanwhile, Deena started out promisingly enough but now has settled into a Snooki Lite role that doesn't add much to the show. Somebody please buy Angelina a first-class ticket to Italy; it'd be worth it just to see the look on the rest of the cast's faces.


The show still hasn't established an interesting character outside the house

The "Shore" casting directors admittedly struck gold with the core cast, but it might help freshen things up if they could add a memorable non-roommate to the mix. Don't these people have friends in Jersey? (Or is MTV saving them all for the umpteen "Shore" spinoffs to follow?) The closest the show has come to establishing a decent supporting character is Vinny's lecherous Uncle Nino, who took a dip in the Jacuzzi with J-Woww and Snooki in Season 2. So let's get Nino a room in the Season 4 villa. He speaks Italian; maybe he could translate!

 Coutesy of Yahoo!

3 Filipinos were executed in China

Image via WikipediaVice President Jejomar Binay confirmed that the three Filipinos found guilty of drug trafficking were  executed in China on Wednesday.

"I just want to inform you that our three compatriots have been executed," Binay told ABS-CBN television, citing information from the Philippine foreign affairs ministry.

In a statement, the Philippine government said that it has done everything in its power to stop the executions.

"We have been informed that Ramon Credo, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, and Elizabeth Batain were administered lethal injections to carry out the sentence imposed by the courts of the People’s Republic of China this morning," deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

"Our government had taken every available opportunity to appeal to the authorities of China for clemency in their cases, to which the Chinese government responded with a postponement of the execution. In the end, however, the sentence was imposed.

"The nation sympathized with the families of the condemned, sharing their sense of looming loss. We sympathize with these families now. Their deaths are a vivid lesson in the tragic toll the drug trade takes on entire families," she added.

The government spokesperson said that government will "ensure that the chain of victimization, as pushers entrap and destroy lives in pursuit of their trade, will be broken."

"Those who traffic in illegal drugs respect no laws, no boundaries, and have no scruples about destroying lives. Our response must be relentless, with government and the citizenry working together to ensure vigilance and mutual support to prevent our countrymen from being used by drug pushers as sacrificial pawns, whether at home or abroad," the spokesperson added.

With additional reports from Agence France Presse

Dead toll to Japan's tragedy continues to rise

SENDAI, Japan (AP) --

The estimated death toll from Japan's disasters climbed past 10,000 Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns and hundreds of thousands of people struggled to find food and water. The prime minister said it was the nation's worst crisis since World War II.

Nuclear plant operators worked frantically to try to keep temperatures down in several reactors crippled by the earthquake and tsunami, wrecking at least two by dumping sea water into them in last-ditch efforts to avoid meltdowns. Officials warned of a second explosion but said it would not pose a health threat.

Near-freezing temperatures compounded the misery of survivors along hundreds of miles (kilometers) of the northeastern coast battered by the tsunami that smashed inland with breathtaking fury. Rescuers pulled bodies from mud-covered jumbles of wrecked houses, shattered tree trunks, twisted cars and tangled power lines while survivors examined the ruined remains.

One rare bit of good news was the rescue of a 60-year-old man swept away by the tsunami who clung to the roof of his house for two days until a military vessel spotted him waving a red cloth about 10 miles (15 kilometers) offshore.

The death toll surged because of a report from Miyagi, one of the three hardest hit states. The police chief told disaster relief officials more than 10,000 people were killed, police spokesman Go Sugawara told The Associated Press. That was an estimate — only 400 people have been confirmed dead in Miyagi, which has a population of 2.3 million.

According to officials, more than 1,800 people were confirmed dead — including 200 people whose bodies were found Sunday along the coast — and more than 1,400 were missing in Friday's disasters. Another 1,900 were injured.

For Japan, one of the world's leading economies with ultramodern infrastructure, the disasters plunged ordinary life into nearly unimaginable deprivation.

Hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers that were cut off from rescuers, aid and electricity. At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake struck and some 1.9 million households were without electricity.

While the government doubled the number of soldiers deployed in the aid effort to 100,000 and sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 29,000 gallons (110,000 liters) of gasoline plus food to the affected areas, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said electricity would take days to restore. In the meantime, he said, electricity would be rationed with rolling blackouts to several cities, including Tokyo.

"This is Japan's most severe crisis since the war ended 65 years ago," Kan told reporters, adding that Japan's future would be decided by its response.

In Rikuzentakata, a port city of over 20,000 virtually wiped out by the tsunami, Etsuko Koyama escaped the water rushing through the third floor of her home but lost her grip on her daughter's hand and has not found her.

"I haven't given up hope yet," Koyama told public broadcaster NHK, wiping tears from her eyes. "I saved myself, but I couldn't save my daughter."

A young man described what ran through his mind before he escaped in a separate rescue. "I thought to myself, ah, this is how I will die," Tatsuro Ishikawa, his face bruised and cut, told NHK as he sat in striped hospital pajamas.

Japanese officials raised their estimate Sunday of the quake's magnitude to 9.0, a notch above the U.S. Geological Survey's reading of 8.9. Either way, it was the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan, which lies on a seismically active arc. A volcano on the southern island of Kyushu — hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the quake' epicenter — also resumed spewing ash and rock Sunday after a couple of quiet weeks, Japan's weather agency said.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/03/10/international/i222815S00.DTL#ixzz1GWmBA3nt

Massive quake unleashes tsunami on Japan

by Miwa Suzuki

TOKYO (AFP) – A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan on Friday, unleashing a monster 10-metre Image via Wikipediahigh tsunami that sent ships crashing into the shore and carried cars through the streets of coastal towns.
Many injuries were reported from Pacific coastal areas of the main Honshu island and the capital Tokyo, police said, while TV footage showed widespread flooding in the area. One person was confirmed dead.
A powerful 10-metre (33 feet) wall of water was reported in Sendai in northeastern Miyagi prefecture, media reported after a four-metre wave hit the coast earlier.

Helicopter footage showed massive inundation in northern coastal towns, where floods of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through towns.
Mud waves were shown racing upstream along the Natori river in Sendai city, blanketing farm fields.
In the capital, where millions evacuated strongly swaying buildings, multiple injuries were reported when the roof of a hall collapsed during a graduation ceremony, police said.

Plumes of smoke rose from at least 10 locations in city, where four million homes suffered power outages. Port areas were flooded, including the carpark of Tokyo Disneyland.
The first quake struck just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey said. It was followed by several aftershocks, one as strong as 7.1.

"We were shaken so strongly for a while that we needed to hold on to something in order not to fall," said an official at the local government of the hardest-hit city of Kurihara in Miyagi prefecture.
"We couldn't escape the building immediately because the tremors continued... City officials are now outside, collecting information on damage," she told AFP by telephone.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan quickly assembled his cabinet after the quake hit, and the government quickly dispatched naval vessels from near Tokyo to the worst-hit northeastern area of Miyagi.

The quake, which hit at 14:46 pm (0546 GMT) and lasted about two minutes, strongly rattled buildings in greater Tokyo, the world's largest urban area and home to some 30 million people.

At least 10 fires were reported in Tokyo, where the subway system stopped, sirens wailed and people streamed out of buildings.

Japan sits on the "Pacific Ring of Fire", which is dotted with volcanoes, and Tokyo is situated in one of its most dangerous areas.

A tsunami warning was issued for Japan, Taiwan, Russia and the Mariana Islands, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.


"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicentre within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours," the centre said in a statement.
It also put the territories of Guam, the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Micronesia and Hawaii under a lower tsunami watch. Indonesia issued its own tsunami warning.

The quake sent the Nikkei share index plunging at the close while the yen fell sharply against the US dollar.
The mega-city of Tokyo sits on the intersection of three continental plates -- the Eurasian, Pacific and Philippine Sea plates -- which are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure.

The government's Earthquake Research Committee has warned of a 70 percent chance that a great, magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo's vast urban sprawl.

The last time a "Big One" hit Tokyo was in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake claimed more than 140,000 lives, many of them in fires. In 1855, the Ansei Edo quake also devastated the city.
In 1995 Kobe earthquake killed more then 6,400 people.

More than 220,000 people were killed when a 9.1-magnitude quake hit off Indonesia in 2004, unleashing a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in countries around the Indian Ocean as far away as Africa.
Small quakes are felt every day somewhere in Japan and people take part in regular drills at schools and workplaces to prepare for a calamity.

Nuclear power plants and bullet trains are designed to automatically shut down when the earth rumbles and many buildings have been quake-proofed with steel and ferro-concrete at great cost in recent decades.

Charlie Sheen fired from "Two and A Half Men"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Charlie Sheen was fired on Monday from his top-rated U.S. TV comedy "Two and A Half Men" after more than a week of insults to producers and manic interviews.

"After careful consideration, Warner Bros. Television has terminated Charlie Sheen's services on "Two and a Half Men" effective immediately," Warner Bros Television said in a statement.

Sheen, 45, is the highest paid actor on U.S. television and "Two and A Half Men" is the most popular comedy for network CBS which broadcasts the series.

But the remainder of the current season was cancelled 10 days ago after Sheen called producer and co-creator Chuck Lorre a "stupid, stupid little man."

The actor followed up with a week of rambling, sometimes manic, TV and radio interviews boasting that he is "winning" and has "tiger blood", while insisting he is drug-free and sober after a period of rehabilitation in January.

Sheen shrugged off Monday's firing with a characteristic mixture of nonchalance and more insults.

"This is very good news," he said in a statement obtained by celebrity website TMZ.com.

"They continue to be in breach, like so many whales. It is a big day of gladness at the Sober Valley Lodge because now I can take all of the bazillions, never have to look at whatshiscock again and I never have to put on those silly shirts for as long as this warlock exists in the terrestrial dimension."

HUGE FOLLOWING

A spokesman for Warner Bros. Television said on Monday that no decision had been made about the future of "Two and A Half Men". The comedy, in which Sheen plays a womanizing bachelor, is a huge generator of advertising revenue for CBS and makes millions in syndication rights for Warner Bros. Television.

Sheen had a contract with the TV show that runs through to the end of the 2012 TV season. He said last week that the roughly $2 million (1.2 million pounds) per episode he was being paid was too low and demanded $3 million an episode. His lawyer also threatened a lawsuit unless he was paid for the eight cancelled episodes this season.

Sheen's long time publicist quit a week ago saying he could no longer work effectively, and Sheen's fellow cast and crew have been largely silent in the face of his bizarre tirades.

But the actor has found a huge popular following. He has attracted a record two million Twitter followers in less than a week, and hosted a live webcast on Saturday that attracted more than 100,000 viewers.

Sirius XM radio launched a 24-hour channel last weekend exploring the media frenzy around Sheen's behaviour and his popular new catchphrases.

The actor was involved in a series of drug and alcohol-related incidents in 2010, and pleaded guilty in August to an assault on his now ex-wife. Production on "Two and A Half Men" was shut down in late January when Sheen was persuaded to enter rehab -- at his Los Angeles home -- after a 36-hour cocaine-fuelled party.

Audiences for "Two and a Half Men" have remained strong despite Sheen's rabble rousing. Original episodes attract about 14 million U.S. viewers a week, and some 10 million tune in to watch repeats.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, Editing by Sandra Maler)