Brave[s]heart

Following up on a previous news item...

The two rock-solid leaders on the 2008 Atlanta Braves were shipped off together to DisabledLand today in a symbolic move intended to quelch any remaining hope within the hearts of Braves fans that their team might pull off a late-season comeback. To drive home the point, GM Frank Wren cracked a genuine Native American tomahawk over his knee, then impaled a geniune Native American on the splintered remains, all the while muttering something about "rebuilding".

In the history of baseball, has there ever been a more depressing roster move than "Chipper and Hudson to the DL, making room to call up Morton & Sammons"?

news in the information age

About 12 hours ago, a Qantas 747-400 lost cabin pressure over the Pacific Ocean and successfully diverted to Manila.

Already, BBC has video footage shot by a passenger during the emergency. People take for granted that news is instant in the information age. But every once in a while, isn't it amazing to step back and think, wow?

Now, if we can just remind people that evaluating the cause of such an incident isn't as instantaneous as reporting it.

You really CAN get anything on eBay!

You know those annoying sponsor links that you sometimes find in the middle of a legitimate news article on the web? They're usually double-underlined, and provided by one of several advertising companies that offer keyword-linking. When you mouse (cursor) over them, you sometimes get a little pop-up preview of where the link will take you.

Well, below is a screenshot of one that I came across this morning on the Jerusalem Post website. I guess you really can get just about anything on eBay.

Waxing Poetic, Part II

"To buy or sell?" Frank Wren was perplexed.
At home they could win; on the road they were vexed.
Then in came the Nats
And took some big hacks,
I guess this is adios, Tex.

Waxing Poetic, Part I

I haven't written much of late
My readers' appetites to sate,
So here's a new way:
A lim'rick each day,
'Less I'm too lazy to create.

The Boy didn't sleep much last night,
Making Mom & Dad's rest also slight,
Though I shouldn't shirk,
It's a quiet day at work,
A quick office nap would seem so right.

Thanks

Thanks.
Thanks.

I think it takes me approximately one second to type that word. Sometimes I change it up in written communication - the occasional Thank You or Muchas Gracias or Much Obliged.

All of this takes a minuscule amount of time and energy.

Why, then, do so many people include "Thanks" in their standard email footer? It certainly doesn't feel so genuine, especially when the footer is in a different font/size/color from the actual written email. Rest assured, every time you see the following at the end of an email from me, I typed it just for you.

Thanks.

Flipper

McCain was once cool.

There was a time that John McCain would've had a chance at getting my vote. Back in the "agents of intolerance" days, when he had the guts to stand up to the Christian Right's take-over of the Republican Party.

Of course, since that time he's had his spine removed, making it easier to bend over backwards to kiss the butts of the likes of Pat Robertson.

However, I came across one additional proof point that McCain was once, dare I say it, cool. When he was held and tortured by the Viet Cong, they demanded the names of his squadron-mates. Giving in under what he humbly calls "physical pressures that were put on me", he finally provided them with some names... of the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive line.

[via Deadspin]