Yahoo Compensation

I would feel better about this if it was just the $815K salary, without the options. But of course everybody's favorite law, Sarbanes-Oxley, makes her beholden to the shareholder; so options and restricted shares will motivate her to improve the share value.

Anyway, see:

CNET - Salary jumps for Decker with Yahoo promotion

and also see:

Professor Bainbridge - The Complete Guide to SOX: An Excerpt

----------------
Now playing: Russ Ballard - The Fire Still Burns
via FoxyTunes

JaMarcus May Start

According to the San Francisco Chronicle due to injuries JaMarcus may be moved to Number 2. This means he might actually get to play on Sunday as the Raiders host Denver.

See:

Healthy Russell finally might get his opportunity to play

Reversing Zombies

According to this article scientists have found a way to reverse the zombie state. Of course, it is in cockroaches and not humans. I guess they can still keep making those movies.

See,

New Scientist - Zombie Cockroaches Revived

Something I Want for Christmas

I have been thinking about getting into home brewing. First, because Alabama's archaic laws put all sorts of limitations on beer. It is for the children, though. Also, because it is a non-active, participatory hobby. I also like to drink beer. So, this is something I am thinking about getting myself for Christmas.

Maestro Homebrew Kit - From Monster Brew

Pot Meet Kettle

Bobby Knight had a confrontation with a neighbor over his shotgun pellets landing on the neighbor's yard. Mr. Knight said he didn't appreciate "the swearing and cussing." Maybe he has mellowed out in Texas.

Anyway, see:

Bobby Knight Denies Shooting at House, Doesn't Appreciate Swearing and Cussing

Schools and Drug Testing

One of our local school systems proposed a new drug testing policy that would include those who drive to schools. Three parents have protested and it has been put on hold. I believe the Supreme Court upheld drug testing students who participate in sports. This proposed policy would be broader, and I guess the arguments on driving is the same. It is a privilege, they don't have to drive to school, safety etc. Hats off to those three parents who delayed the policy to allow more discussion. This, to me, is going way to far in that area.

See,

Madison parents stall vote on drug testing at school

and also,

Supreme Court Approves Extraordinary Expansion Of Suspicionless Student Drug Testing

Stupid News Stories

You read these kind of stories and wonder if they are really true, or something out of The Onion? The gist is I think, is that Canadian men utilize old refrigerators to store their mass quantities of lager, and they are inefficient and demand too much energy generated by Global Warming creating power plants. Believe it if you will.

Study: Canadian Beer Drinkers Threaten Planet

or see:

The Onion - America's Finest News Source

A Blog I Recommend

I found this guy's blog through twittermap. He is one of the few people in HSV who twitters consistently. Anyway, I like and recommend his blog:

The Indiana Jones School of Management

Arsenal's Week

There is a lot going on this week with Arsenal. As part of the fallout from the loss to Seville, Wenger is banned from one match for his abuse of the officials. Fabergas is injured and will miss a few weeks. They play Aston Villa in the Premiership this week who are only six points behind them, so it is not really a break. How the team handles this stretch will tell a lot about them for next year.

See,

Arsenal coach Wenger handed touchline ban

This Was A Predictable Response

Washington DC's new mayor, Adrian Fenty, hired a young, dynamic theorist to turn the school system around. One of the proposals is to close 24 low enrollment school. The headline about the reaction of the city council was very predictable:

Short Notice on School Plan Angers Council

This will not be the first attempt that may fail to close schools. At least no body called the Mayer, who is African-American, and the school head, Ms. Rhee, who is Asian, racist.

You Tube

Once again I find myself browsing old Eighties videos on You Tube. They bring back memories of the few years I spent hanging out in a guy's basement watching MTV every night. We didn't have cable in my town yet, so we drove over to the next one so we could see this new channel. At that time I was really into Heavy Metal, mainly what started as obscure British bands that for a short time were popular with everyone before morphing into "hair metal". Personal favorites were Iron Maiden, Motorhead, and Saxon.

Anyway, for more information see:

Heavy metal music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of course, then there were things like this:

Accept - Balls to the Wall (Legacy Recordings)

Dogs and Cats Are Evil

They are destroying the world. It is bad enough you deign to have children, but now pets? What are you? How selfish can you be?

Anyway, see:

The environmental impact of pets

And yeah, don't even think about burning wood this winter.

Should fireplace fires be banned?

Local Politician Acts Like A Fool

Sometimes people don't realize how they come across. Local State Representative, Alvin Holmes (D-Montgomery, AL), is upset that he didn't get free tickets to the Iron Bowl from Auburn. He has every other year. He also cannot get an explanation for this. So what will he do? He will sue the school. For PR reasons, I guess, they give each legislator free tickets. I really don't want my state school to do that, but I guess you can write it off as lobbying.

Anyway, it takes the HSV Times until the last paragraph to report the school mailed the tickets but they never got there. Sounds like the USPS screwed up to me.

See,

Holmes: He'll sue AU over Iron Bowl tix

Preparing the Battlefield

In DoD Acquisition we call this prepping the battlefield, or managing expectations:

Clinton campaign spokesman, Mark Daley, in the Chicago Sun Times; ""Our definition of success doesn't necessarily mean coming in first,"

See:

California Yankee - Hillary Bracing For Loss In Iowa

And now Team Romney is as well. See:

The Corner - Team Romney 'Fine' With Second Place? Team Huckabee Laughs.

Arsenal Loses!!

Arsenal lost 3-1 to Sevilla in Spain. It was not the best result. Even though they were guaranteed to advance, it was not the way to go on. Wenger took a chance and played a lot of the second string, resting some of the top talent. He also had some injury issues to deal with. It does put pressure on them as it means they will have a harder row ahead in the next round.

Anyway, see:

Sevilla seize on Arsenal's big gamble

This is Sad

No matter what you think of the Redskins, professional football players, or the University of Miami, this is just sad.

Sean Taylor Has Passed Away

Talk About An Inconvenient Truth

If this is really true, it kind of screws up the Global Warming argument. Although, as they often do, people will argue that Global Warming is responsible for every change in the weather. Anyway, see:

We are set on a course of 'planet saving' madness

There is a similar argument in this blog post about failures of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to predict the numbers of named storms each season. Massive failures the last three years in a row. So, also see:

Brendan Loy - Hurricane forecasters say seasonal errors are hurting their credibility

Arsenal in the Champions League

Arsenal play Seville in the Champions League. They have already qualified for the next round, but losing to Seville would put them second in their group. Does Wenger use his young guns, or play his starters to win and stay in the lead? It will be an interesting game.

Anyway, see:

Top spot at stake when Arsenal face Seville

Raiders

Well, it had to happen sometime, they beat KC, in KC, 20-17. They were down and came back and actually held a lead. Maybe they turn the corner, I don't know, but at least it is one more win then last year, and they technically can finish 500. Woo-woo.

Iron Bowl

Well, Alabama loses again, 17-10. There offense could do nothing. At least the defense played well apart from Auburn's first possession. They gave up a touchdown late. Alabama just doesn't have the players, or the motivation I guess. Well, as they say, wait until next year.

Arsenal Wins, Man U Loses

Arsenal beat Wigan 2-0 to stay on top, and even better Man U loses to Bolton!! This means that Arsenal is on top clearly with a game in hand still. What adds to this more is that Sir Alex Ferguson got kicked out of the game for criticizing the referee. What a bunch of whiners, Man U is.

Anyway see:

Sir Alex Ferguson loses it at Bolton

Iron Bowl

Today is the day when the whole state shuts down. Alabama and Auburn play each other. This year it will be at Auburn. There are some differences from the recent past, it will be on ESPN at night. Uusally it was played in the afternoon. That meant if you had anything you needed done do it during the Iron Bowl. The city was empty. That won't happen today.

Anyway, here is some history from the Auburn side:

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IRON BOWL

And from the Alabama side:

HE HISTORY OF THE IRON BOWL ALABAMA vs AUBURN

Arsenal

Arsenal will play Wigan today. They are not a big threat to them, but hopefully the Gunners will play well. Wigan is 22 points below Arsenal, second from the bottom. Unfortunately that often happens to the clubs promoted up. They can only last one year in the Premiership.

There are rumors that Gilberto wants to leave for Italy. I don't think they will let him go as they need the depth.

See:

Gilberto tempted by Juventus move

EJ Dionne - Happy Thanksgiving, Pay More Taxes

EJ Dionne wrote a nice little column in The Washington Post about how great Maryland is to raise taxes. He believes that people are willing to pay taxes to get services from their government. Nobody would argue that, the issue is what are the key services government should provide, and how much should they cost. Maryland, I am sure, in the eyes of many of its citizens provides services that are not necessary, or un-needed. Paying more taxes for this makes no sense. By the way, the tax package raised the sales and cigarette taxes a lot, so it is very hard on the working poor.

See:

A Governor Unafraid of Government

Arsenal

Now that the Premiership is winding down this year, everyone is looking forward to the January signing period. Arsenal is rumored to be after numerous players, mostly either strikers or goalies. Both make sense as with Van Persie injured another striker is needed, and all signs point to Lehman leaving in January as he needs to play to keep his spot on the German National team. He is not going to be playing at Arsenal as long as Almunia is healthy. The other thing Arsenal has is a lot of money available for these signings. Normally, Wenger tries not to do a big signing, preferring to develop his own talent, but with the league the way it is, he might be tempted.

New Low, or Really the Latest, for England Soccer

England lost 3-2 to Croatia, and was eliminated in the Euro 08. The English Football Association reacted by firing the English manager recently chose, Steve McClaren. So now they will probably hire another foreigner to run the team.

See:

Steve McClaren runs out of excuses

Pie

Here are the two pies I made last night for today's meal:

Thanksgiving

Like most Americans, I have a lot to be grateful for this year. It has been a much better year than the last few as there has been several deaths in my family recently. My family is by ourselves this year, but we will still have a good day.

Also, the four days off are nice. Work has been very hectic, and un-fun, lately. It really shouldn't be.

So have a happy day with your family.

Black Friday Warnings

This article is interesting. It warns that no matter how good the deal is, it may still not be worth it. It rings true, as if you have looked at laptops lately you still need to spend a decent amount of money on one. RAM and good screens are not cheap, no matter what.

See:

Beware Black Friday laptop deals

Local Pork

I have blogged in the past about pork. When Congressmen load up the various appropriation bills with specific projects for their districts. Usually these are not requested by anybody in the Executive Branch. Our wonderful Congressman, Bud Cramer, one of the last Democrats in Alabama, has got Huntsville $1.0 Million dollars to build a bridge. This is not a bridge necessary to improve commerce or traffic flow, it will just make the downtown a little nicer. Nice work, Mr. Cramer.

Here is the link to the appropriate press release:

Cramer Announces Transportation Funding for North Alabama

Football

Well, Alabama and the Raiders both lost. Alabama is a major surprise. People here are already talking about Saban being a mistake. I don't think so. He has the excuse that these were Shula's players. Before the season everyone was saying the defense would be a lot worse. You win a few games and people forget those things. So we will have to see.

The Raiders, as usual, wasted a lot of opportunities, from what I have read. They need to win these games. There is always next year.

Photos of Lincoln at Gettysburg

This is just amazing. A historian has found two photos that seem to show Lincoln at Gettysburg prior to his address. One is a stereotype, so it may be possible to see him in three dimensions. Anyway, stuff like this is very exciting.

See:

New Photos of Lincoln at Gettysburg Discovered?

Sports this Weekend

Arsenal is off for Euro 08 qualifiers, and the Raiders go to Minnesota. They are going to try Culpeper again, although they may as well start Jamarcus now and get it over with. Auburn is off and Alabama plays some school from Louisiana. Hopefully, after last week they won't lose. The Iron Bowl is next week at Auburn.

Barry Bonds

He was indicted today on perjury and obstruction of justice relating to the Balco steroid investigation. Maybe he will be convicted, but we all know he is guilty.

See:

Bonds indicted: Home run king faces perjury, obstruction charges

Raiders and the Bears on 12 November

I went to the Raiders game this Sunday. Here are a few photos from it.


 
 
 
 

Arsenal Milestones

Arsenal easily beat Reading 3-1 tonight to take back first place in the Premiership. It also was the game where there 1000th goal in the Premiership was scored. Arsenal made it through the two hard games with draws and still have a game in hand.

See:

Arsenal pass landmark in grand style

Busy Few Days

I just noticed that I haven't posted for a few days. I am in SF visiting family. I also will be going to the Raiders game as well.

Arsenal Advances in the Champions League

Arsenal played Slavia Prague to a 0-0 draw. This is enough with their dominating victory at home, 7-0, to advance into the next round.

Not the most inspired play by Arsenal, but it was what it took.

See:

Champions League Group Stage Match Report - Arsenal 0, Slavia Prague 0

Ron Paul

Ron Paul is the nutty Republican candidate for President. Based on the signs and bumper stickers I have seen he is very popular in Alabama. Especially so in Limestone County. Yesterday he did a fund raising event on the net. Supposedly he raised $4 Million dollars. This alone will allow him to continue in the race.

See:

The man, the technique behind Paul's haul

and also:

Welcome to Limestone County, Alabama

Patriots Whine in Victory

Patriots claim that the Colts artificially increased the crowd noise, then say they didn't. League says the Colts didn't cheat. Classless coach with a classless team.

See:

Colts Deny Alleged 'Artificial Noise'

And my fantasy team lost by three points, who knew the Steelers would put up 38 on the Ravens?

Football

My fantasy team looks in good shape thanks to Marshawn Lynch, who would have imagined?

I continue to loathe the Patriots and everything about them.

The Raiders, again, could not move the ball and score any points. They tried McNown again, but it did no good. I guess we will see JaMarcus soon, hopefully next week as I am going to the game.

See the San Francisco Chronicle coverage:

Raiders' acts of desperation miss mark

Arsenal draw with Man U

Arsenal came back to draw, 2-2. This leaves them tied to at the top of the table with a game in hand. They also have yet to lose in the Premiership this year. A win would have been nice, but they have drawn Liverpool and Man U in the last two weeks which is a perfectly acceptable result.

See the Daily Telegraph coverage:

Sir Alex Ferguson furious at Arsenal escape

John Murtha Pork

I don't know what John Murtha has done to the press, or maybe he has just reached a point where it has gotten so blatent, but now the Washington Post has written about him.

See:

A Contractor, Charity And Magnet for Federal Earmarks

What is even better about the corporation set up by Mr. Murtha is that it is a non-profit. So it doesn't even get to reimburse the Treasury for some of the money sent its way.

Big Game for Arsenal

Arsenal play Man U tomorrow at home. Of course, Fox isn't broadcasting it so I won't see it. Arsenal need to draw, but a win would be great. They are currently tied in the points, but Arsenal has a game in hand. According to the Daily Telegraph Premiership officials are saying that up to a billion people could watch the match.

Anyway, see:

World watches Man Utd and Arsenal collide

Stock Market

It is a good thing that I am young and can ride out days like these. Of course, the market is up about 20% over the last two years so you cannot really complain. People will, though. I guess it is good that I am in defense and select tech stocks, and not financials.

See from Excite Money & Investing:

Stocks Plunge; Dow Drops More Than 360

More Pork

Pork does not have to directly be government money given to an entity. That is the easiest and most direct way to do it. Another form of pork is to have laws changed or created that benefit one person. A perfect example of this is this USA Today story:

Ohio Dem: Repeal ban on melting coins

Here a Congressman wants to have the law banning melting pennies overturned. This will help one company in his district.