Yet again, though, the Cardinal could not force a westward tilt of a sport that has spun decidedly eastward on its axis, losing, 53-47. The all-American center Jayne Appel, hobbled by a gimpy right ankle, missed all 12 of her shots. Without her reliability in the middle, Stanford wobbled out of its accustomed orbit.
link: On Basketball - VanDerveer and Stanford Push but Can’t Upend UConn - NYTimes.com
$4.3 Billion Loss at G.M. Masks Progress Since Bailout
link: G.M. Report Shows Loss, but Also Optimism - NYTimes.com
FOLLOW ME HERE - Psychologist Professor James Cutting and his team from Cornell University, analyzed 150 high-grossing Hollywood films released from 1935 to 2005 and discovered the shot lengths in the more recent movies followed the same mathematical pattern that describes the human attention span.
link: UNDERNEWS: HOLLYWOOD FILMS FOLLOW MATHEMATICAL FORMULA
...funny how if you buy something from online the first thing they do is send you a bunch of snail mail...and what's in this catalog but a whole lot of women wearing longs. Only now, apparently, they're called crops. Once again the world of high fashion struggles, vainly, to keep up with me.
Speaking of which, I went to the grocery store this afternoon and got almost to the corner before I realized I wasn't wearing a hat. It's just that warm today. I haven't dug my summer hat out of its box yet (strictly speaking, I think I'm not supposed to do that until Memorial Day but I'm not all that much into strictly, never was) but maybe I should soon. Anything but go bareheaded. If the sun gets a good strike on my head the glare can be seen in outer space. I expect it - my head, in sunlight - to show up on Google Earth any day. The next thing you know, some alien astronomer will notice and send a fleet to investigate. This, we may not want.
On the other hand, if they have unlocked the secret to getting broadband as fast as they have it in France, maybe we do.
As reported in the New York Times last week, a significant number of innocent Afghans continue to be killed by US and NATO forces...
link: McChrystal: We've Shot 'An Amazing Number' Of Innocent Afghans
WASHINGTON – The nation's economy posted its largest job gain in three years in March, while the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent for the third straight month.
link: Employers added most jobs in 3 years in March - Yahoo! News
The official line, of course: "The increase in payrolls is the latest sign that the economic recovery is gaining momentum and healing in the job market is beginning."
The unemployment rate around here, according to people in the know - including those who are without work but have stopped looking - is closer to 20% than 9.7. FWIW.
The AP's piece continues:
...most economists don't expect new hiring to be fast enough this year to rapidly reduce the unemployment rate.
(Emphasis emphatically mine.)
The World's First and Only Umbrella Cover Museum opened with firecrackers and cupcakes on Peaks Island off the coast of Maine during the summer of 1996....
link: UNDERNEWS: PLACES YOU MAY NOT HAVE VISITED YET
(See more on our official work avoidance list, in the sidebar.)
If the Vatican's declaration that the Pope is a sovereign head of state protected by diplomatic immunity is true, why don't Catholic clergy have to register as foreign agents?
link: UNDERNEWS: QUESTION OF THE DAY
“It’s much more tailored to what intelligence is telling us and what the threat is telling us"...the administration official said...
The new security protocols will be built around present-day threat situations...where fragments of intelligence from various threat streams are considered.
link: Security Check System for Flights to U.S. to Be Altered - NYTimes.com
...threat streams? Really? Is it that bad now?
Exclusive: FEC inaction on enforcing election laws rises more than 600 percent
link: Exclusive: FEC inaction on enforcing election laws rises more than 600 percent | Raw Story
Inaction rises more than 600 percent? You do the math.
Or, come to think of it, never mind.
To avoid further controversy, the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi has rejected a $20,000 gift intended to underwrite an alternate prom replacing one canceled by a local school district after a lesbian student demanded that she be allowed to attend with her girlfriend.
The gift...came from the American Humanist Association, an advocacy group whose mission is to promote “good without God.”
“Although we support and understand organizations like yours, the majority of Mississippians tremble in terror at the word ‘atheist,’ ” Jennifer Carr, the fund-raiser for the A.C.L.U of Mississippi, wrote in an e-mail message to Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the humanist group.
link: Mississippi A.C.L.U. Rejects Gift for Alternate Prom - NYTimes.com
NEW YORK – Saying low-slung pants give their wearers a bad image, a state lawmaker is making the point with some images of his own.
Brooklyn residents awoke Thursday to the sight of two "Stop the Sag" billboards — and more were on the way, organizers said. The signs show two men in jeans low enough to display their underwear. The billboards were bankrolled by state Sen. Eric Adams, who also made an online video to send his message: "You can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants."
link: NY politician takes up cause: Sagging pants - Yahoo! News
...(moi?) but really?
The sun did come out today. Not much, but enough. And it's supposed to warm up to 70 (it's got a long way to go from here), and to 80 on the weekend. So maybe it's time to put away the long johns and the big down parka after all.
(Or maybe not. This is New England, after all, and if the Canadians loose control of their weather again any time soon we could still have a few chilly days. But who knows.)
