Chris Brown Under Fire For Dog-Breeding Business


Must be Friday. Chris Brown is stirring up controversy once again, but no pop singers or plate glass windows were bashed beyond recognition this time.

This time, he's not in trouble with the law though. It's just his apparent side business breeding dogs and selling them for profit that has people riled up.

The R&B superstar is drawing heat from animal-rights activists, obviously, who want him instead to promote adoptions of animals from shelters.

Chris Brown, Dog

On Monday, Brown's manager-mother, Joyce Hawkins, posted a link on her Twitter to CB Breeds, a website featuring this cute photo of her son and a pup.

CB Breeds is offering seven fully vaccinated American pit bull terrier pups for $1,000 a piece. Needless to say, the alleged puppy mill drew howls of protest.

While CB is a perfectly legitimate enterprise, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was quick to issue a statement condemning him:

"This is a moneymaking scheme, and Brown will count the suckers who fall for it as he counts the money on the way to the bank," PETA said.

"There is no such thing as a responsible breeder while wonderful dogs are being put down in animal shelters across the country for lack of a good home."

"Shelters will count the bodies in the barrel. As Justin Bieber, Kellan Lutz and [other responsible celebrities] always say, "Adopt, never buy."

The Los Angeles chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, meanwhile, decried what it called his "backyard breeding."

Said spcaLA president Madeline Bernstein:

"There is no reason to breed and produce more pit bull puppies when there are pit bull puppies waiting for homes in every shelter in America." 

"Furthermore, as some of these dogs suffer from and are victims of their owner's misuse, they can be even harder to place."

A publicist for the singer denied to E! News that Chris Brown is breeding, insisting that the puppies were part of a litter birthed by his family's dogs back home in Virginia and were being sold to make sure they get good homes.

"He loves animals, especially dogs," said the rep.

Chris recently posed with a puppy belonging to GF Karrueche Tran, for what that's worth. Which is pretty much nothing, we admit. Sorry.

[Photo: WENN.com]

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Hot shoe adapter for Sony NEX-5 and NEX-5N gets the hands-on treatment

Hot shoe adapter for Sony NEX-5 and NEX-5N gets the hands-on treatment

The Sony NEX-7 we reviewed last month is the only cam from the NEX line to include a hot shoe for attaching an external flash, but NEX Proshop just introduced an unofficial workaround for the NEX-5N and NEX-5, a hot shoe adapter that will ship for $79.99. Engadget Chinese got to handle a unit and gave it a spin on the NEX-5N. In addition to allowing for an external flash, the adapter lets you automatically sync with the internal one, with the recommended max shutter speed being 1/ 250s. Our sister site's hands-on version didn't allow for tightening the screw position with a coin, which resulted in the adapter coming a bit loose -- so perhaps this isn't the exact model that will ship. Hop on over to the original post for more photos.

Hot shoe adapter for Sony NEX-5 and NEX-5N gets the hands-on treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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30 Seconds To Mars' Next Album Will Be A 'Dramatic Departure'

Jared Leto says they'll be 'bringing the world inside our process' in an 'intimate' broadcast on Friday.
By James Montgomery


30 Seconds to Mars
Photo: Ian Gavan/ Getty Images

For most of 2011 — when they weren't setting Guinness World Records or winning MTV awards — 30 Seconds To Mars repeatedly ducked questions about their future, getting glib when asked about reports that they were calling it quits.

Of course, much to the relief of the Echelon, on Tuesday, the band put any and all speculation of a split to rest, announcing that they had begun work on the follow-up to their This Is War album ... which sort of raises the question: Was 30 STM just messing with us all along? Well, no. Turns out, they were about as unsure of their future as anyone else, as Jared Leto explained to MTV News.

"We weren't playing coy; we were on the road for two years, four months or so, and people started to ask us about a new album, and we didn't have any plans. We didn't know what the future was," he explained. "We had been working for a really long time. We went from A Beautiful Lie right into the studio, right onto the road, I hadn't had a significant break in years. So, at that point, I don't think we knew what was going to happen for the future, so rather than make something up, we just told the truth: We didn't know."

That uncertainty began to change as soon as the band finally took time to decompress following their record-setting world tour. Leto — who admitted he's "always writing songs ... it's basically become a habit at this point" — took a glance at his notebooks and realized that he was feeling recharged and excited about the possibilities a new album would present. Though, before the band started work on the new album, they had to make one thing clear: This time around, they'd try very hard to not try very hard.

"We made a commitment not to tour for all of 2012 ... and I think that helped provide a lot of clarity," Leto laughed. "And we realized there's no way this new record could be like [This Is War,] because the last record was so conceptual and wrapped around this idea of conflict, because we were battling a corporation and being sued for $30 million. That was our lives, being hunkered down in the studio for a couple years, fighting this conglomerate. Of course, now, different time, different state of mind, so this album is definitely a dramatic departure."

That said, there are still some things 30 STM will keep the same on the new album ... namely, incorporating the voices of their worldwide fanbase (they held a series of collaborative recording sessions — so-called "Summits" — during the making of This Is War) and crisscrossing the globe to find inspiration. In fact, Leto rang in 2012 by making a trek to India, where inspiration was definitely not in short supply.

"I was recording in India, and had an amazing experience over there, and came back with some really great material. And not so much that this is a World Beat record, it's more about the experiences and how they're influencing me in creative terms, emotional terms," he explained. "I recorded a tabla player and an Indian folk singer, and I'm hoping I'm able to utilize that on a song. There was one afternoon that we climbed up above a city called Jodhpur, we were on a cliff with a 2,000-year-old fortress behind us. And they call it the blue city; all of the roofs and buildings are painted blue, and when you climb up this mountain you can get a great view of all of it.

"So it was about sunset, and I had a portable set up, so we started recording. I had an external speaker, and the kids started to hear this song I was working on," he continued. "So they started climbing out onto the rooftops of the city, and soon they were scrambling up the side of this mountain, and before we knew it, we were surrounded by dozens of these amazing Indian kids, singing and dancing along to this recording process ... it was really mind-blowing."

And on Friday, fans will be able to get a first listen to some of 30 STM's new material when the band hosts their second It's a way of welcoming their worldwide fanbase into their laboratory, and Leto is thrilled to pull back the curtain. Because though they may be making a "dramatic departure" on album #4, some things will remain the same.

"There are a lot of people around the world who just can't jump on a plane and be part of a show, and that's what we provide [with VyRT]. The event on Friday is different, it's not based around an existing show, it's a show we created and designed, and it's going to be a lot of fun for us," he said. "There will be some music, there will be some mistakes. We're bringing the world inside our process, it will be intimate. I'm going to play some songs, some old songs, some new songs and then maybe some newer songs I've been working on. I'll play a piece of a song here or there — I doubt I'm going to play an entire song, but you never know. It's new territory."

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Draw Something arrives in the Amazon App Store for the Kindle Fire

Draw Something

Draw Something has amassed many users in its time on Android and it has now made the leap onto a device that is suggested to of have captured half of the US Android market share. Yes, Draw Something is now available in the Amazon App Store for the Kindle Fire. You get two options to choose from, the free ad-supported version or you can pony up the $1.99 and go ad free. Hit the source link for the downloads or just go ahead and load up your Amazon Kindle Fire and get to drawing something fun. If you're looking to learn more about the game, check our full review.

 

Source: Amazon

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Josh Barnett: ?I was born for this?

On May 19, Josh Barnett will take on Daniel Cormier to decide the winner of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix. When he walks into that cage, he'll bring with him the experience of 36 fights, including eight wins in his last eight bouts. In the video above, he says he was born to fight, and has a mean streak no one else has. Will that make a difference against Cormier, who has elite wrestling and knockout power? Tell us in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

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Google Adds 3D Photo Tours To Google Maps

google-mapsGoogle just added a cool new feature to Google Maps that lets you see photo tours of 15,000 popular landmarks around the world. If these were just photo tours with a Ken Burns effect thrown in for good measure, of course, this wouldn't be very exciting news. What makes Google's photo tours stand out is that the company's engineers use computer vision techniques to create "a 3D experience from public, user-contributed Picasa and Panoramio photos."

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Some Iconia Tab A500s getting Ice Cream Sandwich early, Acer Ring is MIA

Some Iconia Tab A500s getting Ice Cream Sandwich early, Acer Ring is MIA

Last week, Acer announced that Ice Cream Sandwich would make its way to Iconia Tabs A100 and A500 in Canada and the US starting April 27th, but Phone Arena reports that some owners of the 10.1-inch A500 are getting the option to update a day ahead of schedule. If you're one of the lucky few to be in on the early upgrade, you should be ready to rock with Android 4.0.3 after a 30-minute install. The one potential downside to getting ICS ahead of time? You'll have to wait for the Acer Ring hub, which didn't make the cut for this update.

Some Iconia Tab A500s getting Ice Cream Sandwich early, Acer Ring is MIA originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Original Google Phone Was Almost a Blackberry Clone [Android]

In the ongoing Google versus Oracle courtroom saga, new documents have emerged detailing an early prototype for an Android smartphone. These images and specs were presented to T-Mobile back in 2006. Thank god Google went back to the drawing board. More »


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UFC VP says Strikeforce champ Ronda Rousey helped bolster MMA?s hopes in New York

If, as it should be, mixed martial arts is ever legalized in New York, don't forget to give Strikeforce bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey her share of credit.

On April 18 in Albany, N.Y., the New York state senate voted 43-14 to approve a bill that would legalize and regulate MMA in the state. It still needs to pass the assembly and then be signed by Gov. Cuomo in order to become law.

The bill has passed the state senate before, but this time around, said Marc Ratner, the UFC's vice president for governmental and regulatory affairs, the job was made much easier with Rousey's testimony.

"She got up there and she really made a great presentation and I think she had a significant impact," Ratner said. "We [as executives] can talk all we want to them about the positives of MMA, but to hear it from someone like her, a fighter, someone who is very articulate [and] who made her points very passionately, it definitely made a huge impact."

Rousey, who defeated Miesha Tate by, what else, an arm bar submission to win the title on March 3 in Columbus, was particularly effective when she spoke about what MMA has done for her. She won a bronze medal in judo in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, but said she would be struggling financially had she remained in that sport. She said she'd be losing money if she were a professional judoka.

Several senators approached her, she said, and told her her presentation changed their minds and caused them to vote in favor of the bill.

"MMA has a bad rap among some people," Rousey told Cagewriter. "It's marketed sometimes in a way that is not what the sport is. You hear the marketing, 'Two men enter. One man leaves,' but that's ridiculous. It's not what this sport is. They just do it to sound dramatic. It's like a movie preview. The whole movie isn't just running around and screaming and explosions, but they make it seem like that [in the trailer] so people go to the movie. There's a lot of quiet time and dialogue and there is a plot. What they're doing is like they're comparing a commercial for 'The Bourne Identity' to actually sitting there and watching it for two hours."

She spent time explaining the nuances of her specialty, the arm bar. She pointed out that she'd been arm barred "more times than I can count," and pointed out that she wasn't out snapping bones. She said she doesn't think she's ever broken an opponent's arm.

That, too, worked.

"I explained everything behind it and after I did, they were like, 'OK, that's no problem, it's not barbaric,' " Rousey said.

Her best point, though, may have been when she told the senators that there was actually already MMA going on in the state. She made them aware that there is a robust amateur scene there, but it isn't as safe for the fighters and the fighters aren't able to make a living, like they do when they're professionals and compete where the sport is regulated.

That point struck home with many of the lawmakers.

"In New York, you could fight and have people do MMA," she said. "But they have to do it without the proper medical checks. They have to do it without getting paid. They have to do it without any kind of regulation or oversight. [Amateur MMA in New York] is unsafe the way it is now, because they're missing all the things we have in pro MMA.

"We're not asking them to bring in a bunch of people and tell them to kill each other. That's not what's going on. That's how it was being presented. I wanted to point out that amateur MMA is here already, but we want to get it regulated so it's safe and there is regulation and it is safe and everyone gets paid for what they do. I want to be able to work in any state in my own country. Can you imagine, we're in 2012 and I still legally can't do my job anywhere I want in my country?"

The tens of millions of dollars poured into the legalization effort by UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and president Dana White will be primarily responsible for MMA's passage in New York, if and when it occurs.

But Rousey's day on the hill shouldn't be forgotten. On that day, the lady was a champ when it came to wooing the legislators.

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