Ron Artest admits he used to drink Hennessy at halftime
Dec/09BC
Source: Yahoo! Sports

Yahoo! - Leave it to Ron Artest to try and steal a little of Tiger Woods and Allen Iverson’s headline thunder.
In a lengthy and candid interview for the upcoming issue of Sporting News magazine, Artest — best known as the central figure in the infamous Malice at the Palace in Detroit — lets it fly, including a startling admission that he drank alcohol during games as a member of the Chicago Bulls.
“I used to drink Hennessy … at halftime,” said Artest, who played with the Bulls from 1999-2002 and now is with the Los Angeles Lakers. “I [kept it] in my locker. I’d just walk to the liquor store [near the stadium] and get it.”
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Going Green With New Video Game Cases
Dec/09BC
Source:IGN

Those who recently purchased some of this holiday’s biggest titles for Xbox 360, such as Left 4 Dead 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, probably noticed something a little different about their game cases. The circular-style holes behind game discs and instruction manuals are not production errors. It’s a new effort by companies to become more environmentally friendly by reducing excess packaging materials.
Hong Kong-based case manufacturer Viva Group recently rolled style the new style of casing dubbed the ‘Eco-Box’ which significantly reduces CO2 production emissions. The Eco-Box is already being used by movie studios for DVDs, but now it has begun appearing in the videogames industry.
recently spoke with Kyle Sheppard, Manager of Business Development at Viva. He says this initiative to reduce packaging was actually driven by retailers and not game publishers.
“We have had success over the past two years converting the movie studios to the Eco-Box on a large scale and are now working with the various gaming platforms and game publishers on a similar transition for the games market,” Sheppard told IGN. “Retailers are demanding that the entertainment industry and product manufacturers reduce or eliminate the large and wasteful packaging that has become the standard over the last twenty years.’
“Wal-Mart even introduced a packaging scorecard with certain criteria that must be met, including reducing all packaging by 5% by 2013,” Sheppard added. “The Eco-Box already exceeds this goal for the entertainment industry.”
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Afghan war could be over in 3 years
Dec/09BC
Source: CNN

CNN - President Obama is sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan but has a goal of concluding the war and withdrawing most U.S. service members within three years, senior administration officials told CNN Tuesday.
The president is ordering military officials to get the reinforcements to Afghanistan within six months, White House officials said.
Obama will travel to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, later Tuesday to officially announce his plans. It would be his second escalation of U.S. forces in the war-torn Islamic country since he came to power in January.
The president also is seeking further troop commitments from NATO allies as part of a counterinsurgency strategy aimed at wiping out al Qaeda elements and stabilizing the country while training Afghan forces.
The expected new troop deployment would increase the total U.S. commitment to roughly 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, bolstered by about 45,000 NATO forces.
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