14February2010
Posted by Connor under: Uncategorized.
Where today, Valentines Day falls on a critical football match day. But for those who do, there is Puma’s Hardchorus singing a heartfelt message of love, ultras-style.
12February2010
Posted by Connor under: Clinton.
Here is a weird coincidence… A guy named Gayle Issac has financial fraud investigative agency in Des Moines. In Clinton, we have a guy named, Gayle Issac, who is the Chief Financial Officer of the School District who presided over a huge embezzlement scandal that played over several years and stole many hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
Creepy, no?
10February2010
Posted by Connor under: Football.
The Fox network wrested the rights to European soccer’s premiere club competition, the Champions League from ESPN last year. ESPN, which only televised one or two (of the eight or more played during the main stage) of the games each match day had really not done much in the way of promoting the sport or the competition. Fox has been showing most of the matches either live or same day delay on its Fox Soccer Channel. This has been a godsend for football freaks like yours truly.
But Fox has really upped the ante with its marketing of the game by announcing yesterday that the Champions League Final, to be played for the first time ever on a Saturday, May 22 will be broadcast live, not on Fox Soccer Channel, not on FX but on the mothership, Fox Network. That raises the potential viewing audience from the paltry 60 million or so of FSC to the over 115 million that have access to Fox. Very cool.
For what its worth, I’m hoping for a rematch of last year’s final, Barcelona v. Manchester United.
10February2010
Posted by Connor under: Foreign Policy.
Tomorrow is the 22nd of Bahman. In Iran this is the national day of celebration of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Traditionally a day off for organized government demonstrations. This year will be different.
Both the pro-freedom Green Movement and the pro-government forces are revving up for a huge confrontation tomorrow. Scott Lucas at Enduring America thinks this could be a tipping point:
What is important, in the meantime, is that there is a significant difference on the eve of this event compared to the political environment before Ashura (27 December). On that occasion, the only prominent opposition figure who made a move was former President Mohammad Khatami, and his memorial speech for Grand Ayatollah Montazeri was rudely broken up by pro-Government protesters. Mousavi, Karroubi, and other senior clerics were all muted about the demonstrations to come. And, after those protests, “conservative” figures such as Ali Larijani were unstinting in their criticism of the “violent” and “foreign-backed” Green movement.
Now all these figures are in play. Mousavi, Karroubi, Khatami have put down their political markers for a big opposition show on Thursday and promised more to come. Rafsanjani, for the first time since early December, may have made his manoeuvre to challenge the Government. And Larijani, joined by others within the establishment, is now targeting Ahmadinejad as much as any Green protester.
This political change should not overshadow the importance of the demonstrations on the ground tomorrow. The demands “from below” for legitimacy, justice, and freedom are just as necessary as any high-profile statement or even “ultimatum”.
To follow events tomorrow (probably starting about 7 or 8 p.m. on Wednesday Central Time), the L.A. Times has an excellent blog, Bablylon and Beyond. The National Iranian-American Council blog and Andrew Sullivan will no doubt be aggregating news.
Regardless, do spare a thought for the thousands of brave men and women of all ages who will be risking their lives tomorrow and beyond.
10February2010
Posted by Connor under: Uncategorized.
Yes, I am still out here. My real job has been keeping me crazy busy. But I look forward to busting out some postage after the legislative funnel this week and of course covering Round 2 of live, televised pwnage of the GOP next week by the President.
Also, next week I will be in Des Moines on business on Wednesday and Thursday. I’ll be staying overnight Wednesday night and instead of staying in my hotel watching porn, I figure I could take the same $20 or so and have some stimulating conversation.
Drop me a line if you want to suggest a meeting place somewhere a) a short cab-ride from the west end of downtown b) that has good food and good beer. I’ll post the location early next week.
5February2010
Posted by Connor under: Music; Video.
Indie meets Hindi. H/T my Director of Market Intelligence.
5February2010
Posted by Connor under: Internet; Technology.
Last week Google announced that it will no longer support older browsers. Specifically, this means that Internet Explorer Version 6 will no longer be supported by Gmail, Google Docs and the rest of the Google suite.
This isn’t really that much of a shock. Microsoft itself has been pushing its users to dump IE6 for more than a year. Not just because the shiny new IE7 and then IE8 came out. But because IE6 is a security nightmare and they don’t want to expend the resources any longer. Also, newer technologies like advanced JavaScript and the new HTML5 extensions will not be supported by IE6 ever.
Google is pushing its Chrome browser. I use it every day and like some of the features, but for my money, Firefox, even with its large memory footprint is still the best browser out there. Explorer is a distant third.
If you sill use IE6, notable by its plain blue logo, then you should, at a minimum upgrade to IE8. But really, you should just get Firefox or Chrome
.
The plain vanilla Internet Exlorer 6 logo.
The logo for Internet Explorer 8
5February2010
Posted by Connor under: Uncategorized.
I hate you, you little rodent bastard.
4February2010
Posted by Connor under: Clinton; Uncategorized.
Lyondell Basell
India-based Reliance is continuing to try to purchase the bankrupt chemical giant. The offer, initally tendered in November, stands at $13.5b.
The Dutch-based Lyondell is continuing to work through its Chapter 11 reorganization, and recently filed a motion for settling claims of creditors and setting up a litigation trust fund.
Bridgepoint Education-Ashford University
Of course the big news for Bridgepoint and Ashford recently was the purchase of the property of the Clinton Country Club for an undisclosed price $2.5 million.
Ashford University is adding to its educational offerings, most recently adding specializations to its MBA program. Ashford graduated a record number of students at it winter ceremony and attracted a prominent commencement speaker in National Public Radio’s senior correspondent, Susan Stamberg.
RockTenn
RockTenn posted very good earnings growth in its Q1 2010 filing.
The Norcross, Ga.-based packaging and folding cartons maker (NYSE: RKT) had net income of $56.3 million and earnings of $1.43 a share, compared with net income of $30.6 million and earnings of 79 cents a share in the first quarter of 2009.
The company has also recently announced price increases in its corrugated box and sheet as well as its uncoated recycled paper products.
ADM
ADM is beginning initial startup of the bioplastics plant in Clinton.
The cogeneration facility is up and running.
The company also donated 700 tons of rice to Haiti relief.
4February2010
Posted by Connor under: Economics.
Head to Colorado Springs.
More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.
The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.
Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.
Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.
City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.