From NYTimes.com: A Chili Sauce to Crow About

An article about the ubiquitous Tuong Ot Sriracha sauce (you’ll recognize the bottle).  I did not know that it was an American creation.

Yahoo.com: Shanty home of 2nd ‘Slumdog’ child star torn down

The 9-year-old girl who starred in “Slumdog Millionaire” dodged pieces of falling debris Wednesday as she tried to salvage twisted metal and splintered wood — all that remained of her bubble-gum pink home after authorities demolished part of a city slum where she lived.
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Ten policemen beat Rubina’s father with their sticks for 15 minutes shortly before the demolition began, sending him to the hospital, family members said.

It’s sad to see that with all the success of Slumdog Millionaire, that kids in the movie are still living a life of poverty.

Via OMGPosters.com: Kevin Tong’s Printing Process (Mogwai Poster)

As printing technology gets more advanced and everyone can print great photographs on their home printer, I find myself being drawn to posters screen printed by hand.  Computer printers and larger print presses combine four different colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) to print photorealistic images.  Screen printing is different and much more difficult.  In screen printing, each color printed uses its own screen.  You want to have 12 colors?  You’ll need to have 12 screens.  And between each color, the ink needs to dry before the next layer can be printed.  The difficulty in this lies in registration, the placing of each screen perfectly above the print so that all the colors are in line.

Generally artists will work with three or four colors and create designs that work within that constraint.  Limited colors force the designs to be stronger.  And I appreciate the craftsmanship involved in producing a poster by hand. Kevin Tong documents this process in a series of photos below.  Kevin Tong’s poster is available for purchase at tragicsunshine.com UPDATE: Print is now SOLD OUT.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

From NYTimes.com: Overhaul Likely for Credit Cards

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

“It will be a different business,” said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation’s biggest banks. “Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”

As they thin their ranks of risky cardholders to deal with an economic downturn, major banks including American Express, Citigroup, Bank of America and a long list of others have already begun to raise interest rates, and some have set their sights on consumers who pay their bills on time. The legislation scheduled for a Senate vote on Tuesday does not cap interest rates, so banks can continue to lift them, albeit at a slower pace and with greater disclosure.

Credit Card reform on the surface sounds like a good idea, but now some of the changes seem to have a negative impact on those who have been paying on time or paying their balances in full.  Credit card companies still make money on those who pay off their balances because the credit card companies take a percentage of the sale from the merchants. 

From NYTimes.com: Chinese City Is Chilly to a Sex Theme Park

Sex in China has a long and varied history, as evidenced by accounts of carnal excess in “The Plum in the Golden Vase,” a Ming-era classic, and more recent tales of Mao’s insatiable appetite.

But an attempt to open the first sex theme park in China was quashed by local officials over the weekend, well before construction was completed.

I can’t imagine a sex theme park going up anywhere in the United States outside of Las Vegas.  I had to blog about this because of this picture.

From ESPN.com: Gruden joins ‘Monday Night Football’

Gruden will join play-by-play man Mike Tirico and analyst Ron Jaworski in September, replacing Tony Kornheiser.
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Kornheiser decided to step down after three years of MNF, citing his fear of flying.

“I am totally grateful for the MNF opportunity that I truly enjoyed the last three seasons,” he said. “I feel we got better each year. My fear of planes is legendary and sadly true. When I looked at the upcoming schedule it was the perfect storm that would’ve frequently moved me from the bus to the air. I kept looking at the schedule the past month and wanted to find a way to quietly extricate myself.”

Kornheiser actually stepped down voluntarily? For fear of flying?  Couldn’t they have picked up John Madden’s bus on the cheap now that he isn’t using it anymore?

When I first heard this story, I thought ESPN had canned Kornheiser because he sucked on MNF.  Kornheiser is fine on his show PTI, but added nothing worthwhile on MNF.