In what is sure to be my newest favorite blog, Flip Flop Fly Ball combines two of my favorite things: baseball and infographics! Here's one showing just how insane the ticket prices are at some ballparks:

To be sure, the Van Meegeren story raises many, many questions. Among them: what makes a work of art great? Is it the signature of (or attribution to) an acknowledged master? Is it just a name? Or is it a name implying a provenance? With a photograph we may be interested in the photographer but also in what the photograph is of. With a painting this is often turned around, we may be interested in what the painting is of, but we are primarily interested in the question: who made it? Who held a brush to canvas and painted it? Whether it is the work of an acclaimed master like Vermeer or a duplicitous forger like Van Meegeren — we want to know more.

This is going to be an absolutely fascinating series...

At times, this my-way-or-no-way approach could even come at the expense of his soldiers. Shortly before the Iraq invasion, King Abdullah II of Jordan decreed that warplanes could not overfly his country if they had previously flown over Israel. The king’s demand meant that U.S. fighters would need to make a multiple-hour detour before proceeding to their targets. Rumsfeld had himself been a fighter pilot and presumably recognized the absurdity of the detour, and so one NSC aide approached him during a meeting in the Situation Room as the matter was being discussed.

“Excuse me, Mr. Secretary,” said the aide. “I want you to know that Dr. Rice is prepared to call the king to get that restriction removed so that our kids don’t have to fly the extra two and a half or three hours.”

History will not likely be treating Mr. Rumsfeld kindly.

The President doesn't have some broad, vague duty to "protect Americans." The Constitution really couldn't be clearer about the President's primary responsibility: it's to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. Sometimes, the duty actually assigned by the Constitution is consistent with the duty to Keep Us Safe, but many times, Constitutional imperatives are, by design, in conflict with the goal of maximum security.

I love Greenwald. He boils it down to the facts.

But I have a good excuse...

Well, when this gets posted, we will be hiking around Istanbul (not Constantinople). But I do want to wish the still beautiful Mrs. Hay a very happy [censored]th birthday!

This reminds me of when I saw SW: The Phantom Menace for the first time. In the battle scene on between Jar-Jar's race, the Gungans, and the eeeevil (soon-to-be) emperor's troops, the Gungan troops activate individual energy shields and large energy shield over the field so the Imperial droids can't shoot or bombard them. I remember at the time thinking, "Hey, that was a pretty cool animation there! They matted it it very nicely too" And it took me, literally, about a minute or so to realize that the entire damn scene was an animation. So I was admiring a CGI effect in a CGI scene. [slap forehead].

[just to save myself a shred of dignity, I want to say that I did have to look up the Gungans name... I did not know it off the top of my head. I actually even had to look up "The Phantom Menace" as well. Sadly, I did know Jar-Jar's name.]

Bras, bad.

But with hard work, Chicago can someday be #1!

Yes - the city of Chicago is so behind on their pothole repairs that KFC decided to fill the holes themselves, and use the whole thing for a bit of goodwill generating PR.

Compilation of info regarding swine flu.
Helps you determine if you have the symptoms, and if you should be worried.