I’m seriously impressed with President Bush’s reflexes. But where is the Secret Service? You’d think that after the first throw, the Iraqi would be on the ground tied up in a pretzel, but no, he manages to get off a second pretty good throw. And where’s the agent that’s supposed to jump in front of the President? Does that only happen in the movies?
Monthly Archives:
December 2008
From dubailadiesmasters.com: Monke wins Sorenstam’s final tournament by three shots in Dubai
I was reading the story about Annika Sorenstam’s last tournament when I saw a small picture of the winner holding a trophy that looked like a giant thumb.
It turns out to be a sculpture of a woman wearing a burqa. It’s ironic that women in tiny skirts playing the Western game of golf wins a trophy of a woman who’s face is totally covered and wouldn’t have the opportunity to play the game of golf.
From CNN.com: Zakaria: There is a U.S. auto industry that works
CNN: So you are against the bailout?
Zakaria: No. But the reasons the CEOs of Ford, GM and Chrysler present — that they will restructure, they are still competitive, they will change — are bogus; they won’t. The best argument for the bailout is that it is the most cost-effective jobs program that the government can run in the short term.
Spending on infrastructure to create jobs will take months, maybe years. However, keeping the Big Three afloat will keep hundreds of thousands of jobs in place quickly and easily. It’s true the companies will eventually go bankrupt, but by then hopefully the economy can withstand it.
I think Zakaria has hit the nail on the head.
I’ve been collecting Battlestar Galactica posters. I’ll have to find a space on my wall for this one. 🙂
The new Webisodes that lead into the second half of the final season begin today on Sci-Fi.com.
From CNN.com: Scientists baffled by mysterious acorn shortage
Up and down the East Coast, residents and naturalists alike have been scratching their heads this autumn over a simple question: Where are all the acorns?
Oak trees have shed their leaves, but the usual carpet of acorns is not crunching underfoot.
In far-flung pockets of northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other states, scientists have found no acorns whatsoever.
This sounds like the beginning of one of those bad science fiction disaster films that you find on the Sci-Fi Channel. First something innocuous, like no acorns, and then everyone dies of a plague or overrun by giant squirrels.
Humans have made such a huge impact on the environment that any time something different happens in nature, we always have to look to see if we’re somehow the cause of it, from bees dying to trees not producing acorns.
From WashingtonPost.com: Nobel Physicist Chosen To Be Energy Secretary
President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who heads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to be the next energy secretary, and he has picked veteran regulators from diverse backgrounds to fill three other key jobs on his environmental and climate-change team, Democratic sources said yesterday.
…
Chu, the son of Chinese immigrants, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997 for his work in the “development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.” But, in an interview last year with The Washington Post, Chu said he began to turn his attention to energy and climate change several years ago. “I was following it just as a citizen and getting increasingly alarmed,” he said. “Many of our best basic scientists [now] realize that this is getting down to a crisis situation.”
I think that this is a bold choice for the future. Obviously a smart guy in regards to alternative energy, but how will he manage the bureaucracy and the push back from the established energy industry? Because he’s not a big name like an Al Gore, Chu will probably be more of an ideas guy and lead the formation of the plan and President-elect Obama himself will be the hammer to push these ideas through. It’s interesting to have an actual scientist who knows about energy to be running the Energy Department instead of a lawyer or a bureaucrat.
UPDATE:
An analysis from the NYTimes.com: Energy Choice — Nobelist With Climate Passion
From WSJ/NBC Poll (PDF)
How can 2% think that George W. Bush is one of the very best Presidents? I don’t think Bush himself even thinks that.
From MotorAuthority.com: 2011 Ford Fiesta U.S. features revealed
The Big Three Detroit carmakers are struggling right now, but their plans for the future are still bright – perhaps all the brighter thanks to the focusing nature of the current crisis. As part of the Blue Oval’s future, the Fiesta small car will finally be making its way back to the U.S. as a 2011 model in 2010, and now Ford has revealed the key features of the car via the Fiesta’s minisite.
This car would sell like hotcakes if Ford had it now. Unfortunately for Ford, it won’t arrive here until 2010 as a 2011 model. GM and Ford actually make widely acclaimed small cars for the European market and haven’t offered them to U.S. customers.
According to this NY Times article, Fast-Tracking Some Good Cars, it’s the differences between American and European safety and emission standards and the recertification that’s necessary that’s causing a delay in the introduction of these cars to the U.S. market. The writer suggests the suspension of U.S. requirements and accepting European standards for the next few years to allow American auto manufacturers to fast track the small cars into the U.S. market.
Related article:
MotorTrend.com: Gotta Have Cars: 2010 Ford Fiesta
From Yahoo.com: Angry Ford dealer in SC blasts imports in ads
SAVANNAH, Ga. – A Ford dealer angered over the proposed bailout of U.S. automakers blames the nation’s sour economy on Congress and criticized buyers of Japanese cars, calling the vehicles “rice ready … not road ready” in a radio ad.
O.C. Welch, who owns a dealership near Savannah in Hardeeville, S.C., began airing the minute-long ad on a dozen stations in the area over the weekend. The ad sounds more like a talk-radio tirade than a sales pitch.
“All you people that buy all your Toyotas and send that money to Japan, you know, when you don’t have a job to make your Toyota car payment, don’t come crying to me,” Welch says in the ad. “All those cars are rice ready. They’re not road ready.”
Floyd Mori, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, said Welch’s remarks evoke anti-Asian sentiments often aimed at Japanese and Chinese immigrants to the U.S. from the 1930s through World War II. He also noted many Japanese automakers’ cars are manufactured in America.
“Rice Ready? Ooooh, that’s clever. Not road ready? Not according to families who flock to buy the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. People vote with their feet and their pocket books, it’s the American way.
Spouting anti-Asian sentiment isn’t going to turn around the auto industry. I hear constantly that the American auto makers have closed the quality gap. Well, that just isn’t good enough anymore. To win back customers with a damaged brand, you need to knock the consumer’s socks off with a product that they can’t get anywhere else.
From CNN.com: How to enjoy a honeymoon spot without a honey
With portable board games, books, cards and an unlimited amount of iPod-fueled music, keeping busy in a honeymoon spot can seem a bit like summer camp (but with booze). Use the time a couple might spend in their room getting busy to work on your Scrabble skills, or catch up on all the new music you’ve downloaded but have yet to hear.
This is some great advice… how about recommending some Prozac take the edge of the depression on your vacation.