thank god for worker bees: news feeds may 8

Google has gotten a license to operate driverless vehicles in Nevada. Google engineer Sebastian Thrun said the driverless cars will "help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use." And since they legalize everything but cocaine in that state the cars can be used on any city street including highways and the famous Vegas strip. The car uses video cameras and a detailed GPS to navigate streets and traffic. And while the cars do drive themselves a person is generally in the front to take control of the car in case it decided to go Herbie on you. As long as it doesn't go Herbie Fully Loaded on you.. what a terrible, terrible movie.

Here's some video footage of the car

The Cumberland Theatre just East of Avenue Road and Bloor here in Toronto is down to it's last few shows. The four screen theatre opened in 1981 and, well, kinda sucked. But it was a cool old theatre that was pretty tacky in a charming kind of way. Their last screening is this Sunday. The property manager has plans to redevelop the site and though this is speculation I'm going to assume some condos are going up because we could use a few more of those around the city.

42% of the United States of America to be obese by 2030. So, the next time you feel like wolfing down three Big Macs, and some fries (do people do that?) think again. Obesity is defined as being about 100 pounds over weight. And people who happen to suffer from obesity have an exponentially greater risk of early mortality, diabetes, and heart disease. Have some broccoli and cauliflower!

A Swiss actor has created something terrifying to almost everyone. So, for a fee, a week before you childs birthday you are able to hire this gentleman, named Dominic Deville, to stalk you child as a scary looking clown. He will send texts, letters and make phone calls threatening you child with an attack. It turns out the attack happens on the kid's actual birthday. After the week of tormenting you child the clown for hire smashes your kids face in a cake. He insists that "If the kid gets too scared or the parents want me to stop, I stop immediately," but has found out through his new gig that "most kids like to be scared senseless." Right. Just in case your child is well balanced and has nothing to talk about in therapy give this guy a call.

After being in development hell for years, it looks like the Jimi Hendrix bio-pic will be going ahead with Andre 3000 cast in the lead role. A Hendrix movie has been discussed for a long time, really heating up a couple years ago around the time of 'Ray' and 'Walk the Line' but was stopped by the Hendrix foundation. No reports on why the film was allowed to go ahead now, but good piece of casting so I hope they go with it. Speaking of good casting, it's going to be great to see Sacha Baron Cohen as Freddy Mercury in the Queen bio-pic. Been talked about for a while and not much going on yet, but that show must go on!

Totally crap news. Adam Yauch, aka MCA, a third of the Beastie Boys died at 47 after a 3 year long battle with cancer. Starting as a fast as hell punk band in 1979 the evolved to put out some of the crunchiest grooves 3 white boys would ever put out. He was not able to make the Beastie recent induction to the Rock and Roll hall of fame, and the group hasn't performed since 2009, the year Yauch was first diagnosed with cancer. Still remember getting Ill Communication in that Columbia House thing.. Like 10 CDs for a dollar or whatever. Oh, the 90s. Here's a Beastie appearance on Late Night with David Letterman where they walked through the streets of NYC rapping winding back up for the big finish at Dave's studio.

I hear some movie did pretty good over the last few days. The Avengers did 200 million and change on their North American opening weekend, shattering box office records. Pretty impressive cast, but the costumes in the line up and theatres all over the country is pretty ridiculous. I haven't seen it yet, but by the sounds of it I probably should. I don't know much about superhero movies, like Batman and Spiderman ok, but other than that I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to that stuff, but I'm sure it'll be entertaining. I liked the first Iron Man movie and all, but mostly because of Downey's charismatic performance, not necessarily because of the super hero stuff. Anyways, the reviews have been quite good and apparently it's a perfect popcorn movie even if you aren't really into comic book movie, so grab some popcorn and a soda, kick back and enjoy!

The governator Arnold Schwartzenegger said "I'll be back" and he meant it. Arnie finished serving his two terms as governor of California dove right back into the movies with three films to be released in the next year; "The Tomb" is currently being filmed and it is the first of two to co-star his 80s rival Stallone coming out soon with the Expendables sequel slated for an August release. He will also be starring in "The Last Stand" with a January 2013 opening date and has just teamed up with Dan Ayer, who is know for writing "Training Day," "U-571" and "S.W.A.T," who will be directing the new project which will be called "Ten." Arnold is a member of an elite (obviously) DEA task for dealing with the world's deadliest drug lords. Welcome back, big guy.

The New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils are both one game away from eliminating their second round opponents for a rematch of the 1994 Conference Finals, the series where Messier guaranteed a win and scores a hat trick to seal said victory. The Rangers have been to the final four just one other time since 1994 when they broke their 54 year Cup curse losing to the eventual champions Devils in 1997. Fortunately, the four teams in the East all don't like each other too much so it should be a great series for whoever makes it. Things are a little more set on the West side now that Phoenix eliminated the favoured Nashville Predators last night. Phoenix goalie Mike Smith has officially pulled ahead of Dustin Brown in the early favourite for the Conn Smythe trophy for playoffs MVP and when the two face each other in the Western conference championship it's going to be great to see who get's the better of who. This is LA's second trip to the final four, first one since 1993 where the Gretzky led Kings put a dagger in the hearts of Leaf fans everywhere, eliminating the Leafs, ruining a dream Montreal/Toronto final. The Phoenix/Original Winnipeg Jets franchise has never been.