What Caught My Eye Today

Baseball - I don't usually start of with sports headlines, but I'm making an exception this one time, what with my hometown team so close to winning its first title in more than 60 years. The San Francisco Giants outplayed the Texas Rangers beating the Rangers 4-0 last night to move within one win of the World Series championship. Not being a huge fan of baseball, I felt compelled to investigate just how historic it would be if the Giants manage to close the deal. One of the older baseball teams, the Giants have won the most games of any team in the history of American baseball, and any North American professional sports team. They have won 21 National League pennants and appeared in 18 World Series championships, both tied with rivals Los Angeles Dodgers for most in the league. The Giants have been invited to the World Series an NL record 19 times. The Giants played in New York City through the 1957 season, after which they moved west to California to become the San Francisco Giants. As the New York Giants, they won 14 pennants and 5 World Championships. The Giants have not won a World Championship since 1954, and have never done so in San Francisco, for the third-longest championship drought among MLB teams behind those of the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. The Giants have won 4 pennants in San Francisco, but have not managed to win a World Championship yet. Whew. I feel so much better now.

Infrastructure - One of the big concerns of both political parties in the U.S. is fixing the nation's infrastructure. Last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act set aside almost $72 billion for repairs and fresh infrastructure projects. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, that's just a down payment on the $2.2 trillion that should be spent through 2014. Oh come on. Things cannot be that bad, can they?

• Aviation ($45 billion committed spending; $87 billion estimated need): The critical issue is to roll out the Next Generation Air Transportation System, which will move air traffic control from a ground based system to a satellite system.
  Seems like a waste of money to me. I say if 1960s technology is still working, why change it>
• Water ($140 billion committed; $255 billion needed): Leaking pipes lose 7 billion gallons of drinking water a day and many reservoirs, treatment plants and pumping stations are nearing the end of their "design life".
  Again, I don't see the big deal here. If we all just switched to booze, this water thing would be far less important.
• Energy ($34.5 billion committed; $75 billion needed): Demand for electricity has grown more than 25% since 1990 and some estimates suggest electric utilities may need as much as $1.5 trillion in investment by 2030.
  Maybe if we are drinking more booze we might not notice all those power shortages. I'm just saying.
• Roads and Bridges ($351.5 billion committed; $930 billion needed): More than 26% of U.S. bridges are either structurally deficient or obsolete.
  Seriously, I think drinking more could help here too. If we're too drunk to drive, then the need for all those roads and bridges wouldn't be so important, would it?

Potpourri - This edition has something for everyone.

• Population - As a result of low birth rates and the aging of the baby boom, the global population of children under 5 will drop by 49 million by 2050, while the population of people over 60 will grow by 1.2 billion.
  If everything goes according to plan and I don't get struck down by lightning or something like that, I will be one of those 1.2 billion geezers.
• Garlic - Most garlic sold in the U.S. comes from China, because it is less expensive to ship garlic thousands of miles than to grow it and harvest it in California.
  Well now, that just stinks.
• Salaries - The average financial industry employee earned slightly more than $100,000 in the first three months of 2010 while the average American worker earned $10,668 in the same period.
  Isn't it grand to see how well that financial bail out plan work out?
• Mobile phones - A bidder in Kuwait has paid $750,000 to reserve the eight-digit mobile phone number 5555-5555. "Vanity" mobile numbers are a popular form of conspicuous consumption among the wealthy in the Middle East. In 2006, a bidder in Qatar paid $2.7 million to reserve the number 666-6666.
  I'm at a loss for words on this one.

Fred's Note: GO GIANTS!!!