(1) Thefts of manhole covers increase as metals prices soar
Three weeks ago 12-year-old Shamira Fingers from South Philadelphia was walking down a city street near her home when she suddenly fell into an open sewer hole.

Source

(2) Obama on Patriotism
Well, here's what Obama should have said, given his world view: "The true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is embarrassment about the Nation much of the time, and loyalty to Big Government all of the time."

Source

Limestone Commentary
Obama giving a speech on patriotism would be like Ted Kennedy mounting a vigorous defense of capitalism and free markets.

(3) Paterson Is Cheered At NYC's Gay Pride Parade
NEW YORK — Gay residents cheered Gov. David Paterson on Sunday as he joined the city's annual gay pride march a month after he directed state agencies to provide full marriage benefits to same-sex couples who were legally married elsewhere.

Source

Limestone Commentary
Super!

Labels: end times, obama

In case you haven't noticed I'm on my summer posting schedule. Today I'm off on a short road trip with General Burgoyne and Pervy Sage to watch Twellman take the pitch for the first time since May 11.

We're also going to see WALL•E on Sunday and so far the reviews have been stellar. The story is post-apocalyptic (maybe even dystopic) and includes a bevy of robots with a forlorn WALL•E as the main character.

Labels: robots, soccer, weekend

These are all related...

(1) Yeah. And there's one at Heathrow now.

Sleep, refresh, work or relax...

Everything you would expect from a luxury hotel in a small space. Located uniquely inside the airport terminal buildings at London Heathrow’s Terminal 4 and London Gatwick’s South Terminal. Just moments walk from check in, arrivals and minutes from the other terminals. YOTEL opens at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam in Summer 2008.

Related
(2) I just purchased 3,000 shares of BnL Macro on E*TRADE. I'm very bullish on Buy n Large.



(3) I gave General Burgoyne some Automoblox Mini's for his birthday. Every car has a VIN number printed on the chassis and you can us it to register the car online. What a clever marketing idea.

Labels: airports

Everything seemingly is spinning out of control
By ALAN FRAM and EILEEN PUTMAN, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON - Is everything spinning out of control?

Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.

Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how to fix problems now.

Maybe. And maybe this is what the 21st century will be about — a great unraveling of some things long taken for granted.

Source

Limestone Commentary
The blogger with many visions™ implores you to head for the hills.

Related
Obama Debuts (for Real) His Own Very Special Pre-Presidential Seal - I like the unicorn.

"Now I could stand up here and say, let’s get everybody together, let’s get unified the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing,” she said, to a smattering of giggles. “And everyone will know we should do the right thing, and the world will be perfect."

- HRC

*Unless we vote for Obama the Messiah!

AP Confirms: We're all gonna die (the visual)

Labels: end times

Big match a sell out
Hordes of fans lined up yesterday to get tickets for Bermuda's football match against Trinidad on Sunday, which is being anticipated as one of the biggest sporting events on the Island in years.

Source


Related
Bermuda's goal-den chance
More tickets for sale!
Moment of truth in New World

Update
Trinidad & Tobago 2 (3) - Bermuda 0 (2) (FINAL)
Trinidad advances on aggregate.

Labels: bermuda, soccer

In Part I of my book review of The Pixar Touch by David A. Price I promised their would be dirty hippies and now dirty hippies you shall have.

"CalArts was Walt Disney's brainchild; he had started the planning of the school in the late 1950s and provided generously for it in his will. Walt and his brother Roy formed it in 1961 through a merger of two struggling Los Angeles institutions, the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute. The doors opened at the school's consolidated campus in Valencia in 1971, five years after Walt's death.

The school had nearly been finished off before Lasseter got there. The Valencia campus opened at a time when hippiedom was near its peak. The Disney family, although forward thinking in many ways, was uncomfortable with the protest movements and flower-child culture that inevitably seeped into the school. The final straw came during a meeting if the school's campus affairs committee, when a member of the photography faculty showed up in the nude to protest an edict against skinny-dipping in the swimming pool."

Radda radda radda!

Labels: disney

"His company was now run at its top levels by men who understood themselves to be following his example, without understanding that his example consisted of bold strokes. Thirteen years after Walt Disney's death, the most favored expression of executives seemed to be, "As Walt Used to say..."

- David A. Price, The Pixar Touch


Part 1

The Pixar Touch by David A. Price is something akin to middleware. It is somewhere between Levy's Hackers and Gabler's Walt Disney. Price begins his epic tale looking through the eyes of Lasseter (and to a lesser degree Banks and Bluth) to describe the threadbare and rudderless conditions of the Walt Disney Studios in the years after Walt's death. He also introduces a motley cast of hardcore technologists like Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith who would move PIXAR from a garage at the New York Institute of Technology to Lucasfilm Ltd. and eventually to Pixar, Inc. c/o Steve Jobs. The story of Lasseter (and Banks) ultimately intersects with Catmull and Smith and the evolution of the company becomes a fascinating tale (and case study).


And while the evolution of PIXAR from a hardware company to a full-fledged animation studio is an interesting story, all the fireworks and drama in this book involve Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner. Following the tragic death of Frank Wells and the departure of Jeffrey Katzenberg, Eisner's leadership is no better than the caretakers who followed Disney. I had forgotten how pathetic the studio(s) releases were post Katzenberg and Wells. What were Chicken Little and the Emperor's New Groove?

It's Roy Disney, Walt's nephew, who starts the first coup to remove then chief executive Ron Miller. Miller is eventually replaced with Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. Ironically, it's a second coup led by Roy a decade or so later to extract Eisner from the company after his [Eisner's] lackluster performance and histrionics. Roy succeeds and Bob Iger is named CEO. Iger has the humility to recognize the "edge of his competency" and reaches out to PIXAR (almost immediately) to repair relations with a jilted Steve Jobs. Hollywood (and the MSM) has done a great job of portraying CEO(s) as soulless bastards but Hollywood is an egalitarian cohort without the open- mindedness to contemplate the skill required to become a CEO. And while some CEO(s) have lent credibility to the characterization/stereotype, the truth/fact remains that it's a pretty lonely job. I love Bob Iger in this book though. His interview with Eisner on CNBC is befitting of a CEO:

"And I felt - one of the things that I learned from you and [Capital Cities/ABC chairman and CEO] Tom Murphy and others is to know the edge of your own competency. And I felt that we had talent in animation. But we also needed great leadership. I didn't think I could provide that leadership in animation. And I believed strongly that the people at Pixar could. Plus they also had tremendous talent."

The history of PIXAR, like any great Disney animated feature, also involves a great cast of heroes and villains. It also has an angel or two in the form of Hayao Miyazaki and Frank Thomas AND some filthy hippies. In the second part of this post I will look at some of the heroes and villains and the elements that make this book such a great case study.

Labels: disney

It's a BIG football weekend. It started yesterday when Croatia defeated Germany 2 - 1 in Euro2008™ to take sole possession of first place in Group B. Play resumes in the group of death [Group C] this afternoon when the Netherlands play former WC champions France. Italy, still licking their wounds from that humiliating defeat against the Netherlands, will try to climb out of the bottom of the table when they play Romania.

Meanwhile, the New England Revolution shut out the Houston Dynamo 2 - 0 on the road to solidify their place on top of the Eastern Conference Standings. Both teams were missing key players due to national duty in World Cup qualifying. New England was without Khano Smith who will play for Bermuda this weekend in a WC qualifier against Trinidad and Tobago. The Dynamo were missing Brian Ching who is with the US MNT in California as they prepare for the 1st leg of their WC qualifying campaign against Barbados on Sunday.

Weekend Updates

Netherlands 4-1 France: Dutch master class
Trinidad game 'biggest of my career' – Khano
Beware the dangers of complacency
Breaking News: Bermuda defeats Trinidad

**UPDATE**
Bermuda WINS 2 - 1!

Trinidad and Tobago suffered the biggest shock of the round, losing to rank outsiders Bermuda in their own capital, Port of Spain. The team that qualified for Germany 2006 were one down after only eight minutes when journeyman striker John Berry Nusom hit home. Stern John drew level in the 22nd minute, but Nusom grabbed the winner, and his second on the night, five minutes before the break in a 2-1 win for Keith Tucker's Bermudans.

Source

Labels: soccer

Once upon a time, before soccer captured my imagination, baseball was king. I have an attic and basement full of cards, magazines, pennants, autographed bats and baseballs, and other assorted memorabilia. My three favorite baseball treasures include a 1954 Topps Henry Aaron rookie card, a bat signed and used by Dale Murphy in 1987 and a pennant from the Glens Falls Tigers.

I went to a Glens Falls Tigers game with my family on a road trip to Cooperstown, NY. At the time I was searching for a new team (mostly to spite my dad) and for some reason had settled on liking a very bad Atlanta Braves team. My interest started with their lanky right-fielder Dale Murphy but was reinforced by their accessibility on TBS.

At Glens Falls I was an unsuspecting witness to baseball history and the very beginning of an historic run by the Atlanta Braves. I had no idea that a pitcher on the Glens Falls roster would soon be on his way to Atlanta and part of the best trio of pitchers in the modern era (John Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine).

But in the summer(s) of 1987/1988 I couldn't imagine a Braves team without Dale Murphy. Sadly, Murphy was traded to the Phillies before the Braves went on that run. I suppose there's a lesson in all this waxing because while I was thinking about the present - Dale Murphy roaming right field in a Braves uniform - some smart baseball men were acquiring talent like John Smoltz from the Glens Falls Tigers with an eye on the future.

While my enthusiasm for baseball has waned my affinity for Smoltz (and the Atlanta Braves) remains. The Braves are inextricably linked to a very innocent and idyllic part of my adolescence and that's why this latest injury stings so deeply...It [his injury] is a grim reminder that time is the great violator™ and that if we hold on to the past too tightly we may end up with an attic or basement full of musty memorabilia.

There's more to the story though...My dad never begrudged my adoption of the Atlanta Braves. He took me to Atlanta to see Dale Murphy at the old Fulton Country Stadium. He also bought me that autographed bat. My dad was encouraging me to explore the space and many years later he would even abet my separation from baseball by trudging to a U.S. versus Scotland soccer match.

Only certainty for Smoltz: Hall of Fame
It's 514 miles from Glens Falls, N.Y., to Richmond. John Smoltz dragged out the trip to 14 hours in 1987. He was in no hurry. He was trying to sort things out, not easy for a 20-year-old who had just been traded by his hometown team, the Detroit Tigers, to the Atlanta Braves. And for a grumpy old pitcher twice his age. John's mind was in a tornadic whirl...

Related
Smoltz says he will attempt a comeback
Maddux on the mound a joy to watch

Labels: baseball, weekend

(1) Sarah Jessica Parker Looks Like A Horse - A site comparing photos of the actress with those of horses is #7 on the list of Alexa Web Search Movers and Shakers.

(2) I Kissed A Girl is sung by Katy Perry. She's the lyrical genius who also gave us the song Ur So Gay and the Ur So Gay (Remix).

I got so brave, drink in hand
Lost my discretion
It's not what, I'm used to
Just wanna try you on
I'm curious for you
Caught my attention

I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don't mean I'm in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

(3) End Times Bonus: Actress has a crush on Obama - The messiah even exchanges emails with Scarlett.

Labels: end times

(1) Is Google Making Us Stupid?

(2) Some meaty reading from Iain Murray on rail privatization.

(3) Obama: I’d like higher gas prices, just not so quickly

Labels: obama, railroads

Obama's Campaign Is A Contradiction

"And therein lies a huge problem. Obama is loved by the Daily Kos crowd (angry lefty populists), the Huffington Post crowd (urbane coastal liberals), pro-business internationalists such as Bill Richardson, trendy suburban Republicans here and there, neo-hippie college kids, environmentalists, union members and nearly all African Americans.

That's a coalition with conflicting hopes and internal contradictions too many to name. It won't be long, therefore, before President Obama will have to seriously tick off one or more of his key constituencies. Will it be the hopeful business liberals or the angry lefty populists who rule the blogosphere? One group is sure to get shafted, big time, within Obama's first hundred days as president."

Related

Breaking News: Jim Johnson resigns from Obama campaign

Labels: obama

Politics
(1) It looks like I need to replace the Hillary banners (but with what???).

Football
(2) The US MNT earns a good result against Argentina (U.S. rises to the occasion against Argentina).

(3) Euro2008™ matches in the group of death start today at high noon. Group C includes current WC champions Italy, former WC champions France, Romania, and the Netherlands.

(4) C is for...Le Corbusier - Switzerland produces a hugely disproportionate number of the world's top architects, notably the man who last century invented tall, gray, depressing, high-rise, concrete buildings. "A house is a machine for living," the Swiss maestro said. One with lifts that smell of piss, it turns out. - A-Z of Austria & Switzerland: Everything you need to know about the hosts and their football. And plenty that you don't..., FourFourTwo Complete Guide To EURO 2008

Disney
(5) I'm reading The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company by David Price and will post a review as soon as I'm finished. Jeff Pepper from 2719 Hyperion has read and posted a review of the book here.

(6) Lost at Disney World? Go on Google Earth: Disney called its entry the largest corporate initiative on Google Earth (c/o Hinata)

Labels: weekend

...I still have two for you though:

"Corn dogs, Jackie. Corn dogs for all these people."

- Father Pat the Ref, Semi-Pro

This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of mystery, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

- Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1

Is Meatwad preparing for the end? Signs say yes - Los Angeles Times

Meatwad Leaves Grill That Drew Wide Criticism - NYTimes.com

Labels: weekend

My money is on the hooligans.

Culture Clash: Soccer Fans, Art Elite Butt Heads
Annual Dealers' Fair In Basel Is Overrun By Euro-Cup Followers

Here's the money quote:
"They are also turning over their "hooligan database" to Basel authorities to help keep potential troublemakers away from the matches, according to Pascale Vögeli, a Euro 2008 spokeswoman."

A hooligan database? Really?

Related
Soccer, as Wall Street sees it (via Soccer Orb)

Labels: soccer, weekend

I'm not sure why the US Soccer Federation didn't name Sven-Goran Eriksson manager after Bruce was sacked. Now it looks like Sven may end up in our backyard.

Eriksson 'poised for Mexico job'

Only three national teams will qualify from the North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF) zone. A fourth team will qualify if they win a play-off with the fifth-place finisher in the CONMEBOL zone (South America)†.

I watched Canada play Brazil today in an international friendly in Seattle on Telemundo. Brazil struggled mightily against Canada but eventually prevailed 3-2.

Canada has a good team and Brazil was lucky that the Canadians squandered three easy (very easy) goal scoring opportunities. Julian de Guzman hit a wicked right-foot shot from just outside the penalty area in the 56th minute today to equalize. He's the type of player with the kind of experience that's going to give the US fits.

Bradley better start expecting more from him team or they could miss the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It will be a huge set-back if our national team fails to qualify.

Mexico has struggled against the US but their fortunes could change with Sven-Goran Eriksson prowling the sidelines. In the 2007 Gold Cup™ the US narrowly defeated Canada 2-1 in a match with some "dubiously friendly" calls. CONCACAF also includes other good programs from countries like Costa Rica, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Panama. Bradley's boys better get the lead out.

Labels: soccer, weekend