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From Cincinnati.com: First look at The Banks

Designers worked hard, said developer Bailey Pope, to build a new residential neighborhood for the city, yet one that still has the feel of a connection to downtown.

“They tried to make it look like an organic neighborhood that grew over time,” he said.

I don’t know what the developers are seeing when they look at the drawings, but to me it seems like they’ve accomplished neither.  The buildings are too uniform to have an organic neighborhood look and the style of the buildings pretty much don’t look like anything else downtown.

I’d rather have totally innovative architecture like the Ascent or at least something classic.  This stuff is totally generic cookie cutter stuff.  They’ve been saying for years that The Banks development will be the front door of the city.  I wish they would treat it that way and develop a signature look for the project instead of importing some leftover concept from another city.

I totally envy the architecture that’s going on in other parts of the world like Dubai where architects and designers compete to create the most unique structures on the planet.

While better than an empty lot, I’m sorely disappointed with these designs.

From SeattlePi.com: Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant via daringfireball.net

An actual email from Bill Gates to a Microsoft employee describing the trials and tribulations of trying to download and install Movie Maker.  A must read!

The email is an internal email that was turned over during the antitrust suits against Microsoft.

Another funny comic from Garfield minus Garfield.  That Jon Arbuckle is one strange and crazy guy.

I saw a car towing this motorcycle like contraption this morning on Liberty St. in Over the Rhine.  I couldn’t get a picture of the car because the light had turned green, but it had environmental slogans on it.  Evidently, this is some kind of “green vehicle”.

I Googled it but didn’t find anything in my quick search, so I have no idea what the function of it is.

Like usual when searching Google, I found something else related that’s pretty cool.

From GreenUPGRADER.com: The Uno Electric Motorcycle, or MotorUnicycle

From Guardian.co.uk: Wimbledon 2008: Novak Djokovic v Marat Safin (Link was a live blog of the match)

From Wimbledon.org: Super Safin destroys Djokovic

This is a stunner, because Djokovic was picked by some to win this tournament because of his strong all court game.  Marat Safin is an enigmatic player, a player with tremendous talent that never seems to play to his potential.  He is a two time Grand Slam tournament champion, but he hasn’t done a whole lot since 2005.

From NYTimes.com: Muslim Voters Detect a Snub From Obama

While the senator has visited churches and synagogues, he has yet to appear at a single mosque. Muslim and Arab-American organizations have tried repeatedly to arrange meetings with Mr. Obama, but officials with those groups say their invitations — unlike those of their Jewish and Christian counterparts — have been ignored. Last week, two Muslim women wearing head scarves were barred by campaign volunteers from appearing behind Mr. Obama at a rally in Detroit.

This is a no-win situation for Obama.  Courting the Muslim vote is political poison right now as the general public in the United States wrongly equates terrorism with Islam.  Obama is about change, but he still has to survive as a candidate in this political environment.  Obama has broken down many barriers in this run, but is it expected that he breaks down all of them?

From CNN.com: America’s untapped oil

Oil companies and many lawmakers are pressing to open up more U.S. land for drilling. But the industry is drilling on just a fraction of offshore areas it already has access to.

But why would oil companies not drill in these areas?  Here’s an answer:

But fearing oil prices will eventually fall, the industry is leery about making too many investments in the fields it has – many of which are in deepwater areas that can be pricey to develop.

Instead, they’re holding out, hoping the government will open areas closer to shore that would be cheaper to work on.

The Oil Companies are waiting for something much more profitable to be handed to them by the government. 

From CNN.com: Americans save on gas in Mexico, but costs may hit later

But the savings might come at a cost: Mexican gas is made with a different formula — containing more sulfur — which could hurt your car in the long run, according to Stephen Mazor with AAA’s Automotive Research Center.

That fuel mixture can ruin the emission control equipment on American cars and cause them to fail emissions tests.

Obviously, only something you might attempt to do when living close to the border.  A friend of mine has driven from NYC to NJ to get cheaper gas.  Even with the $8 toll, he still saves enough money to make it worthwhile.

I saw this TV commercial over the weekend while I was watching a Cincinnati Reds baseball game on Fox Sports Ohio.

It’s for Farmersonly.com, a dating site for:

Farmers, Ranchers, Ag Students & all of Agriculture, Horse, Livestock Owners & all Animal Lovers, Cowboys, Cowgirls, Rodeo Fans and Country Wannabes

From the website:

Instead of asking what your astrological sign is, at FarmersOnly.com I ask if you raise or breed alpacas, horses, cattle, chickens, dogs, goats, rabbits, sheep, grow crops, or if you’re an organic farmer, student farmer, cowboy, cowgirl, or just a farmer wanna be! How many singles sites do that?

So, for you lonely ranch hands, you don’t have to do the Brokeback Mountain thing anymore.

It seems like you need to have a critical mass for a dating site to be effective.  I wonder how successful this site is with the size of the demographic that it’s targeting.

From Cincinnati Enquirer: ‘Bodies’ breaks record

Or does it?

Morris Tsai, a Taiwanese-American and a Bodies protester since the show opened, says the attendance figures are misleading, pointing out that the Vatican drew its 186,000 in 120 days and it has taken 141 days for Bodies, so it’s not a record-setter. “Clearly, Bodies’ attendance is trailing the Vatican. It took three weeks longer to match the Vatican.”

Yes, I did the research on this last night and am quoted in this article.  So, now I am quoting myself!  In any case, the Cincinnati Museum Center would have you believe that this exhibit is an overwhelming success, but a closer look at the numbers shows the possibility that this show is not doing as well they had hoped.

With unprecedented advertising constantly on tv, billboards, buses, and newspapers, this exhibit has drawn people much more slowly than the Vatican exhibit, Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes.

Compare the two:
Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes- 186,000
visitors- reached this number in 120 days.
December 20, 2003- April 18, 2004

Bodies the Exhibition- 186,000 visitors.  Reached this number in 140 days.
February 1, 2008- June 19, 2008

The article also provides with one more bit of information:

The Bodies controversy got the show off to a roaring start – its first month attracted 53,000 visitors, compared to 27,000 for the Vatican

So, if Bodies the Exhibition drew 53,000 in the first month, the attendance since then has dropped tremendously in recent months.

It’s clear from all their statements before the show got here, that the Cincinnati Museum Center expected Bodies the Exhibition to be the blockbuster that ends all blockbusters.  While it’s hard to classify a show that has reached 186,000 people as a failure, I believe that the show is under-performing their expectations by reaching this record, 3 weeks slower than their previous biggest show.