What Caught My Eye Today

Fred's note: Fear not, loyal reader, I live. My, but a lot has transpired since we last spoke. I won't bother to touch upon everything that has gone on since my last post--really, what's the point? Plus there is so much going on right now to amuse us.

World Roundup - Despite my long lay off, the headlines look remarkably the same.

• "Indonesia's twin disasters kill more than 300"
  For those of you keeping track, this time around Indonesia got hit by a double whammy, a tsunami and a volcano. Poor bastards.
• "Government delaying 4,300 West Bank apartments"
  Nice to see those peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians are going so well.
• "Wall St falls in stimulus rethink"
  What's this I hear, the economy still sucks? Wow, who saw that coming?
• "Laura Bush calls Palin an ‘effective’ campaigner"
  It wouldn't be a campaign season in the U.S. without at least one mention of Sarah Palin.

Politics - Unlike most countries, where the election process consists of a few weeks of campaigning, then the election itself, followed by months of re-counts, the United States has seen fit to make elections the new national pass time. The big headline for the upcoming mid-term election--for those of you outside the U.S., this basically means that the office of President is not being contested--is the polling that strongly suggests that the Democratic party will lose its majority in the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. Buried in this, is the historical fact that the party in power after a Presidential election, almost always loses a significant number of seats in mid-term elections--but I digress. At any rate, being the statistics addict that I am, I've added a projection analysis of how the federal government might look like after the elections next week.

Sex - An auction for the much-sought-after domain name sex.com was canceled after three creditors filed a petition forcing the owner into bankruptcy. According to the petition, the creditors have a combined $10.1 million claim. The owner paid a reported $12 million to $14 million for the domain name in 2006, but the company was unable to repay the debt. Lemme see if I've got this straight; this brain trust could not figure out a way to make money off "sex"? Just how stupid are they? The lender ordered the foreclosure sale in which there was "considerable interest" in the domain name sale. You don't say? I'm curious...what sort of individual or group might have an interest in, you know, "sex"? One of the interested parties was People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which sent a letter to the lender's lawyer asking him to urge his client to donate the domain name to them. Males who consume meat, eggs and dairy products often suffer sexual side effects, according to PETA. "Donating the domain to us is a win-win situation for everybody: Your client will enjoy an enormous tax write-off, and people will learn how to help spice up their love lives while helping animals," wrote PETA. There is some validity to this line of reasoning, if you think about it. Maybe "sex" doesn't appeal to everyone (though for the life of me, I cannot think of a good reason), but who wouldn't just melt at the sight of a cuddly, wuddly puppy dog? The Sex.com site front page features links to things like "love horoscopes," "story of the day," "youtube video of the day" and "classifieds." Speaking strictly for myself, I just go there for the articles.

Baseball - If you are not a resident or former resident of either the Bay Area or Texas, this probably won't matter much to you. That said...THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! Yeah, yeah. Big deal, what with it having been 8 long years since they won their last one. I'm much more intrigued by the fact that whoever wins this year's World Series, the San Francisco Giants or the Texas Ranger, it will be the first title for either team in their current city. The Giants have not won a title since they re-located from New York back in 1957 and for the Rangers, this is their first appearance in the big show in their 49 years of existence. Still, being a Bay Area native, I have to pull for the Giants, which will win the series 4 games to 3.