The Lantern Blog

Matt Giraud, one of the top five competitors on the American Idol television show, admitted in an interview with MTV that he never really wanted to be the American Idol.

Instead, he said that his goal was just to play music on the stage.  Piano and jazz were two of Girauds’ specialties, and he did a fine job with every one of his performances.

In the interview, Giraud also said he was pleased with the way he went out.  While Simon Cowell was highly complimentary of his performance, other judges on the panel did not enjoy his performance very much, which surprised him.

Can anyone really blame Matt Giraud?  Time and time again, we have found that just because one doesn’t win American Idol does not mean that all hope is lost.  Giraud has the moxie and the stage presence to be successful in the music industry.

Giraud was also the “save” of the season.  Since the judges elected to go with a top 13 to begin the season, they allocated one week to save a contestant they felt should have had another chance to prove America wrong with their vote.

Do you think Matt should have been kicked off American Idol?

Have you ever wanted to avoid your high school reunion like the Swine Flu?

Well, a Los Angeles area woman decided to skip her high school reunion.  Instead, she hired a stripper and sent her on her way.

Shocked?  Hardly.  Andrea Wachner, the former high school student and now-comedy actor, was fed up with the “drama” from high school (no pun intended).  She noted in the article that the drinking and the academically-intense environment turned her off to seeing her high school peers.

When the stripper went the reunion, Andrea didn’t completely miss out.  She had radio communications hooked up to the stripper as she walked around and mingled with the people who attended.

While this is a fascinating story, perhaps even more fascinating is that Wachner wants to make this story into a feature film.  She has already written a script, and is in the process of pitching it to several sources around the country.  She is scheduled to be on Good Morning America next week, where she will continue to promote her film.

Would you ever hire someone else to attend your high school reunion for you?

After close examination by doctors, a case of swine flu has been found in Ohio’s Lorain County.

Swine flu is a variant of influenza that is caused by exposure to infected pigs.  The virus can mutate into a transmittable disease between humans.

The current strain of Swine Flu that has been found recently around the country has been linked to Mexico.  The nine-year-old boy who came down with the Swine Flu had been traveling in Mexico just a few days before he experienced symptoms.

Symptoms of the Swine Flu are very similar to that of seasonal influenza.  Flu shots taken for the seasonal flu are generally considered unlikely to provide protection against this fairly new strain.

What can you do if you come down with the Swine Flu?  Simply put—stay at home!  It is currently unknown how easily this strain will be passed from human to human, but scientists have not ruled out the possibility that it could cause widespread issues.  Individuals recovering from the Swine Flu are generally considered to be contagious up to seven days after they feel better.

In terms of prevention, frequent hand washing is highly recommended to put airborne germs at bay.

Are you taking any precautions with the news of Swine Flu reported in Ohio?

Brad Keselowski, a NASCAR rookie, was able to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race today.

However, it came at the steep price of a massive crash.

One of the scariest (and craziest) crashes in the past decade took place at Talladega Superspeedway today, when Keselowski spun out race leader Carl Edwards to take the lead.

After Edwards’ car came down, the entire carborator was separated from the front of the car—showing just how much impact the car took when it hit the infield fence.

Two race fans had to be taken to the hospital for medical care, and neither is considered to have serious injuries.

After a crash like that, NASCAR has to be thankful that the infield fence held up.  If the infield fence was not as strong as it was, fans could have easily died due to the flying debris.

Take a look at the YouTube video posted above.  Do you think that NASCAR should implement more safety for their race fans?

Got a Nokia 1100 cell phone?  It could sell for as much as $25,000 Euro.

Okay, maybe not here in the states.  However, European gangs are on watch and actively attempting to acquire these phones, which can intercept text and SMS messages sent between a cell phone user and European banks.  Germany seems to be the country of choice for these phones.

These technologically advanced gangs were able to hack into these phones and code the phones so they would act as active intercepting tools for text messages.  If the codes can indeed be intercepted with using one of these phones, it could cause a massive disturbance in Europe.

This story could be disturbing on a few levels.  What if American phones have a similar kind of loophole?  There is a possibility that some older phones would be able to be hacked into, just like the ones in Europe have been.  Valuable information is sometimes transmitted over SMS messages, and if confidential US information is intercepted, it could have a profound impact on our society.  What do you think about this loophole in Europe?

Subway, one of the most popular submarine sandwich stores in the nation, ended their Any Five Dollar Footlong promotion today.

The promotional time period allowed for a Subway customer to purchase any regular (not premium!) footlong submarine sandwich for a mere price of $5.  However, Subway will now offer eight footlong subs that will remain at the mere price of $5.

Hoping that your Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki or Subway Club is on the list?  Unfortunately, no.  Here is a list of the subs that are included in the eight $5 footlongs.

- Tuna

- Black Forest Ham

- Meatball Marinara

- BLT

- Oven Roasted Chicken Breast

- Cold Cut Combo

- Spicy Italian

- Veggie Delite

Questions have also arisen over whether this will cause a significant number of people to stop going to Subway, due to the increased cost of some footlong subs.

How will Subway’s price changes affect how often you eat at the restaurant?

Philip Markoff, a recently accused Craigslist Killer, was examined today by authorities to attempt to understand his motives for murdering Julissa Brisman.  They had met over a Craiglist personal ad, posted in the Boston and the Rhode Island areas.  Markoff eventually shot her several times in the heart when they met up face-to-face.

Craigslist

According to the latest reports, Markoff was struggling with gambling, and apparently it may have played a role in the murder.

This isn’t the first time that Craiglist has been questioned for safety issues.

In March, a radio reporter was stabbed 50 times after allowing a teenager enter his home due to a Craigslist post.

A Yahoo Questions post takes a look at a few opinions on the matter, and they differ greatly.

Associated Content’s Amy Kay wrote a great article on “How to Stay Safe While Using Craigslist“.  For anyone, it is a worthwhile read on what to look out for when using the popular website.

Do you use Craigslist, and if so, how long have you been using it?  With the latest story on the Craigslist murder, will this affect the way you use Craigslist in the future?

The BBC is reporting that the founders of the now infamous website the Pirate Bay (which we will not link here)  have been sentenced to jail.

The founders for a long time had skirted charges based on a loophole in Sweedish law which allowed bit torrent trackers to operate legally in their country.  Alexa rates the Pirate Bay 105th most popular of all the websites in the world.

They were sentenced to one year of jail time plus a fine of $4.5 million.  The founders say they don’t have it to pay and would rather burn everything they own than pay it.

“Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde were found guilty in the case, along with Carl Lundström,” wrote Wired.com

Engadget, the mega tech blog points out that an appeal is inevitable and that nothing in the courts order will actually shut down the website.

Even if it did if the history of piracy has taught us anything shutting down one venue has been a game of whack a mole.   As soon as one ‘mole’ is whacked another pops up to take its place.

Rich Rodriguez, the head football coach for the Michigan Wolverines, is looking a different direction to add much needed quarterback depth for his roster.

Greg Paulus, a former Duke PG, apparently met with Rich Rod to discuss the possibility of playing quarterback for the Wolverines this season.

This is a fairly surprising move, as Paulus has played four years of college basketball at one of the best basketball schools that this country has to offer.  For him to jump right back into football seems a bit far-fetched, at least initally.  Paulus was a top recruit coming out of high school, but chose to play basketball for Coach K.  And who could deny that kind of opportunity?

If this story is indeed true, and Paulus is truly thinking about going to Ann Arbor to lead the maize and blue, then this is a huge story from a recruiting standpoint.

Will Rich Rod start Paulus over top recruits Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson?

Will it end up being a Steven Threet-Nick Sheridan type platoon like last year (we all know how that ended up)?

All in all, this is surprising news to many around the nation this morning.  Hopefully someone can clarify just how serious Paulus is about taking on the QB job.

Today, the 2009 National Football League schedule was released to the public.  For fans of the two Ohio NFL teams, there are some stark differences in the schedules.

For the Cincinnati Bengals, they draw the toughest schedule in the AFC North, according to NFL.com.  The team opens on September 13, 2009 vs. the Denver Broncos.  The next two games are at Green Bay, vs. Pittsburgh, and then a road trip to see the Cleveland Browns for the first time in the season.

Chad Johnson will be able to wear Ocho Cinco on the back of his jersey this season.

It certainly appears off hand that the Cincinnati Bengals got a raw deal for the upcoming season.  The first part of the schedule appears brutal with games vs. Pittsburgh, at Baltimore, and vs. Chicago.

The Cleveland Browns are a different story.  They have the 8th softest schedule in the league, which should help them to improve significantly this year.  They will play one Monday Night Football game this year vs. Baltimore in Week 10.

With the exception of games against San Diego and Pittsburgh, the Browns appear like they could cruise right on through. If they can improve their defense, this team could take a big stride this year.