Hillary, You're Still On...

Hillary's mic was left on as she sang the Star Spangled Banner. Very off-key. Video Dog says the right is all over this. Maybe, but I find it very endearing.

Sorry

Stupid life taking over all the time I should be blogging. Hopefully, that will end soon. But I also got a Wii. So maybe I'll be blogging a little less often this week. Anyway, Here's a video you can watch 8 times, instead of reading 8 different posts.

Via here:

Hooter's is Hiring Old Guys and Nerds?

The pic is from the Hooter's press release
I got this via all kinds of places (like here and here).

Well of course not, Gates is easily spottable, in the center, but also, please notice, that's Warren Buffett, top left. They were getting their Hooter's VIP cards, which entitle them to lifetime free Hooter's. I'm not imaginative enough to make this up. So, what are Bill Gates and Warren Buffett doing posing with Hooter's girls? We have this from the release:

The pair made a stop at the Hooters Restaurant along with members of the Board of Directors for Berkshire Hathaway. The visit came at the request of Buffet so the group could pose for a Christmas card photo with the chain's beautiful Hooters girls.

So basically this is what happened, as I understand (imagine) it. Warren Buffett is meeting with the Board of Directors for Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett decided that he wanted a Christmas card with Hooter's girls. So he calls up Bill Gates, who is, conveniently, also in Kansas City, and in the mood for wings. The Board, Buffett and Gates, meet at Hooter's, to be presented with VIP cards, and have their picture taken. For Buffett's Christmas card, of course.

Quoth Jason Fetters, General manager of the Kansas City Hooters:

Clearly these guys can go anywhere they want to. The fact that they picked Hooters hopefully says something about the strength of our brand.

NYC Food Media Search

It kind of sucks, and there is probably a better version of the same thing already out there, but I am trying to put together a good custom search engine, that searches blogs and other media for NYC Food related articles. You can try it out on the right. Please, let me know what you think. I'll try to make it pretty later.

NYC Food Search

Behind the Obama-Muslim curve

Apparently, I just didn't know what I was talking about. Fox News et al have been calling that Indonesian school a 'madrassa.' Thankfully, the people at CNN did, as Wolf Blitzer called it, "what any serious news organization is supposed to do."

It does seem weird to send a reporter to Jakarta to investigate an obvious smear claim, but whatever.

SOTU Satire.

Wait for the Dem's response, it's worth it.

...and at home

Everyone is on the side of the President, when it comes to effort towards fighting malaria in Africa. I just wanted to say, thanks to his lack of effort towards global warming, it's potentially a domestic issue.

They quote this NEJM paper.

Grover Norquist is a freak

On the heels of a fist-clench-inducing SOTU, I wanted to share the misery I had to hear on CNBC today - Grover Norquist blasting Dem's on Social Security. He says it so much more grotesquely than Bush ever would in the SOTU, though they're of like mind.

CNBC Video here

Barack Obama is a Muslim?

I rarely interact with conservatives, so when I have an IM discussion like this, it's kind of jarring. AS is a co-worker.

AS: i need a level headed liberal opinion on barack obama
me: yeah, i like him, not in love with him
AS: my conservative friends wont vote for him because hes muslim
me: he's not muslim
me: he's a christian
AS: wasnt he born muslim
AS: or i think his father
AS: is
AS: he was brought up muslim
AS: and may have converted

Even considering that he apparently attended a Muslim school for 2 years while in Indonesia as a young child (see Note 7 of his Wikipedia page), attaching "Muslim" to him is low, and ignorant.

So why am I not in love with Obama? Until very recently (as in the recent co-sponsoring of the carbon capping bill with McCain) he hadn't done anything to really win me over, nor does he have a unique liberal slant that I really appreciate. That contrasts, for me, with Spitzer, whose commitment to prosecuting white-collar criminals while he was AG for NY seems both ethically good and counter-culture for a politician - even if it's no Hamsterdam (I'd quit my job and volunteer for a politician who would say they'd examine the idea of a Hamsterdam.

It would be easy to really, really like Obama though - I'm a sucker for an eloquent speaker. Also, it's nice to know that someone thinks I'm a "level headed liberal."

Oh, and like her "conservative friends" would have voted for him anyway.

MySpace Hunt of American Idol Losers

Need I say more? Via Buzzfeed.

Titans Win!

Thanks to KS for the pic.

So, tagging along with friends, I went to the premiere of Lacrosse in New York City - the first home game of the New York Titans at MSG (they split home games at the Garden, and at Nassau Colliseum), against the Chicago Shamrox. The Titans are NYC's team in the National Lacrosse League. Thankfully, the home team won, so my plan of drunken reveling didn't stick out as really inappropriate.

And reveling was what they encouraged. They handed out glowsticks and towels for waving as we entered. The music was what I'd expect at a monster truck rally (think Metallica, Green Day, and Rage against the Machine). And the music played the ENTIRE game - as in, even during game play. The Titans have cheerleaders - more than you can say about the Jets or Giants.

When the game started the Shamrox looked to be the hungrier, more aggressive team. Though that didn't sway the Garden faithful (quoth the guy behind me, "Fuck you, fucking Shamcocks!"). But Casey Powell checked hard, had some sweet passes, and became my favorite Titan as the Titans took over the game. The game was a reminder - lacrosse is a violent sport. They were checking each other (lacrosse-speak for beating each other with their sticks) every chance they had (which was all game), and tensions ran high. Fights broke out repeatedly on the field. The crowd got into it (Chanting "T-I-T-A-N-S" until they realized they liked "T-I-T-n'-ass" more). My friends, actual NLL fans, estimated attendance at ~10,000, which they were pleased with.

All in all, I had fun. Lacrosse is violent and fast - if that's your thing, check it out.
NYT article, before the game.

Yeah, it's not quite that good

Mad flurry of blogging! Finally, some time to relax.

Children of Men was awesome. Still, not as jarring as Last King of Scotland, and Forest Whitaker dominates Clive Owen. So I think the Movie of the Millenium is way too much.

But I think this guy has got it right too:

And there's an urban-warfare scene toward the end that I'll put up against anything in Saving Private Ryan.

Double Standard?

There are finally laws deciding how Iraqi oil revenue is handled! Finally settled. An excerpt form the NYT:

After months of tense bargaining, a cabinet-level committee has produced a draft law governing Iraq’s vast oil fields that would distribute all revenues through the federal government and grant Baghdad wide powers in exploration, development and awarding major international contracts.

Wasn't that evil when Hugo Chavez did it?

Lake Tahoe, as beautiful as can be seen on a computer

So this site, xRez, has gigapixel images, and you can move around through them with the Google Maps interface. Sweet! So here is the link to a huge image of Lake Tahoe. It's amazing. To the left is the Tahoe Keys, where I stayed recently for Dan's 30th Birthday Bash.

Also, the first link here, is a shot of Boston. You can zoom in to see pedestrians. Amazing.

Park Slope - for real with the mommies!

So the stroller/mommy madness in Park Slope discussed in other blogs wasn't overrated. I go back to Brooklyn for the first time in a while, to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, and that is the sign I see. Forgive the blurry cell phone photo.

Seriously, where else do you see no stroller signs?

Vaguely Qualified's awesome new trailer

Nerdcore Rising



Guys, please digg it too...

meta-Google Alerts?

I get a Google Alert for when blogs post re: hybrid trading on the NYSE (for work). I inadvertently made my own Google Alert!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Google Alerts <googlealerts-noreply@google.com>
Date: Jan 5, 2007 4:16 PM
Subject: Google Alert - NYSE Hybrid Trading -toyota -inurl:nyse.com  -inurl:elitetrader.com -inurl:nysedata.com
To: raf_oh

Google Blogs Alert for: NYSE Hybrid Trading -toyota -inurl:nyse.com -inurl: elitetrader.com -inurl:nysedata.com

Why did they close the NYSE?
By raf_oh(raf_oh)
My how the times have changed. The following is taken from here, the NYSE Hybrid trading blog: Happy Thursday, folks. Time for a historical trivia quiz: Why did NYSE close all day on Jan. 4, 1861? a) Hurricane b) Gold panic ...
Raf's Blog - http://raf-oh.blogspot.com/index.html

Q&A: Auto-routing to NYSE Arca, plus new order types
ISOs will execute on NYSE, even if there's a better price in another market. ... Time for a historical trivia quiz: Why did NYSE close all day on Jan. ... Tags: New York Stock Exchange, Hybrid Market, NYSE, NYSE Group, NYX, trading, ...
Nyse historical daily stock prices - http://stockmarketnasdaq.com/blogs/nyse-historical-daily-stock-prices/

January 2007 Archives :: January 5, 2007
http://www.nyse.com/press/1167910985385.html NDX Hybrid Dials/Settings http://www.cboe.org/publish/RegCir/RG07-004.pdf Trading Starts 15 Minutes Earlier on 15 January 2007 http://www.tfx.co.jp/en/newsfile/07/20070115kikaijuchu_e.html ...
The John Lothian Newsletter Blog - http://johnlothiannewsletter.com/phpbb/

---

 This once a day Google Alert is brought to you by Google.

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Park Slope Hilarity

The Brooklyn Record had a piece about the comments in a Brownstoner post.

Basically, it was discussing the Park Slope mommies. Here's part:

"you people that complain about park slope moms are such pussies. i'm a early 30's single man who just recently moved to park slope and couldn't be any happier in the neighborhood. i constantly get smiles and thank you's from mothers with strollers when i hold the door for them or simply pass them on the street. i think it's your poor attitudes and apparent disgust for the neighborhood that ruins it for the rest of us." — Posted by: anonymous at January 2, 2007 2:54 PM

"2:54, please spare us the pro-mom claptrap and accompanying milf fantasies. You're not going to get laid here." — Posted by: Anonymous at January 2, 2007 3:36 PM
3:36...

"i'm gay, asshole." — Posted by: Anonymous at January 2, 2007 3:58 PM

Why did they close the NYSE?

My how the times have changed. The following is taken from HybridTalk, the NYSE Hybrid trading blog:


Happy Thursday, folks. Time for a historical trivia quiz: Why did NYSE close all day on Jan. 4, 1861?

a) Hurricane
b) Gold panic
c) A national day of fasting, humiliation and prayer
d) Railroad bankruptcy crisis

The answer is . . .

. . .

Today in NYSE History
04 Jan 1861 -- The NYSE was closed for a national day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.

I just made up a, b and d, BTW. I can't find a mention of this day in various online histories, but I assume that President Lincoln ordered it before in the hopes of bringing people to their senses and averting the Civil War, which started that April. I guess that back in the day, humiliation did not have the negative connotation it does today. Maybe we would do well today to appreciate the meaning it must have had then -- to gain humility.


National Day of "fasting, humiliation and prayer?" Imagine telling a Goldman trader today that he had to take a day off for that.

Classic New Yorker Cover - Newyorkistan

Wondering what's up with the whole Maira Kalman with the Times thing, I snooped around, and found this - a cover that she did for the New Yorker. Brilliant.

Spitzer's inaugural speech

He's no Abraham Lincoln, but this is fairly eloquent for a current politician. Here's a bit from here:

As we step outside on this first January morning of 2007, the light of a new day shines down on the Empire State once again.

The opportunity at the heart of this day is unique to our times, but not new to our history. As the writer Russell Shorto has aptly noted, New York created the model for the kind of society that would be duplicated throughout the country and around the globe: Our state was born as an island at the center of the world.

What began as a babble of dialects and peoples struggling to find a way to live together, searching for balance between chaos and order, liberty and oppression, became a symphony of democracy.

Under the shadow of liberty’s torch, generations of weary travelers have sailed into New York harbor believing that of all the places on Earth, this was the land where people could come and find the chance to make their world anew.

That no matter how great the hardship, no matter how daunting the challenge, the promise of our democracy makes it possible to overcome the greatest odds so that we — individually and as a society — may arrive at a greater good.

And so it was for those first immigrants who came with little and worked long days to give their children a better life.

For the bold governor, Dewitt Clinton, who ignored the warnings of the skeptics and cynics and built an Erie Canal that so many had said was wasteful, impractical, and impossible.

For the reformers of Teddy Roosevelt’s day who dared to take on the political machine and inbred corruption in order to give government back to the people.

For the suffragists and union members and civil rights heroes who organized and marched on our streets to win their chance at the American dream.

For the inventors, artists and entrepreneurs who have turned our state into a beacon of hope, ideas and opportunity.

And so it must be for us. Like all who have come before, we have arrived at this moment on this day because we have demanded a different and more vibrant future for our children.

Jeb uses emoticons?

This would suggest he's used the internet(s). From NYT article (coloring obviously mine):

“I have no idea what I will be doing next,” he wrote by e-mail from Boca Chica, Fla., where he was vacationing with his parents. “My priorities are to hang out with my beloved wife (until she can’t take it anymore! :)), work out every day and figure out what I will do next with my life.”

I have to say, I was intrigued. He's also quoted speaking in Spanish in that article. So maybe he's a better Bush? Well, I read on.

“Bush was the type that if you did not agree with him, he really didn’t have time for you,” said State Senator Frederica Wilson, Democrat of Miami. “He wanted you to rubber stamp every idea he had, and he wouldn’t listen to reason.”

Damn it.