Hamlet
A full comment on the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis's production of Hamlet will have to wait, but if you live in the region, it will suffice to say that you should go catch it at Forest Park before Sunday. How often can you find a professional production of Shakespeare's greatest play that is free?
Go. You won't regret it.
Sinking Polls
Rasmussen writes,
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20 (see trends).
Why am I not surprised?
Late Night Haiku XXXII
XC. Soft wind of mem'ry
Blows by, though the other may
Forget what remains.
XCI. Ah! For the happy
Twist of plot to be placed by
The playwright's kind hand.
XCII. But to hope for what
Is but memory, not twist…
Such hope is tragic.
Google Earth is How It Should Be on iPad
If you need an example of what a 10” screen attached to Apple's A4 processor can do, you really should check out Google's updated Google Earth for iOS. While I thought Google Earth was pretty nifty on the iPhone and Android phones, on the iPad, the effect of using it is much more like on the desktop application.
I remember five years ago when I first tried Google Earth that it completely amazed me as I took it through the Grand Canyon and saw how it layered real satellite imagery on a 3D model of the terrain. It is something I always love having the chance to demo to people. And thanks to a well designed codebase, it usually runs at an enjoyable speed even on less than top of the line computers.
Yet, the idea of being able to see it at approximately “full size” in a touchscreen environment really changes things. It feels natural, like this is how Google Earth was always meant to be. I had a feeling if the program ever showed up on the iPad it would be amazing, yet given the current Apple-Google hostilities, I doubted the release of such a full iPad version would happen.
Great job, Google.
The View from Mudsock Heights
My fellow OFB contributor and friend, Dennis Powell, manages to deal with political correctness and issues surrounding utilities and communication services in one highly amusing piece this week. Just the helicopters part alone makes the column worth your time.
The piece does remind those of us in the city about why we have it so good, even when it might not always seem so.
Chick-fil-A
I just found out that the cows favorite restaurant chain is building a location just a few miles down the road from me. This is simply too exciting! How did I ever go through life without knowing about Chick-fil-A for so many years?
I am not quite sure, but in any case, I am really glad they are coming to St. Charles.
Highest Fuel Efficiency
Getting Organized
After years of letting my digital photo collection get out of control, I've spent today organizing it. I have a ways to go, but I've managed to at least bring some order to my 60,000+ photos. It feels great to see them in some semblance of order.
Turning to Chapter 11 of BP's Story
Matt Simmons on the future of BP:
They have about a month before they declare Chapter 11. They're going to run out of cash from lawsuits, cleanup and other expenses. One really smart thing that Obama did was about three weeks ago he forced BP CEO Tony Hayward to put in writing that BP would pay for every dollar of the cleanup. But there isn't enough money in the world to clean up the Gulf of Mexico. Once BP realizes the extent of this my guess is that they'll panic and go into Chapter 11.
I suspect he is right. I am not sure how BP can weather this short of entering bankruptcy protection. Of course, how its liabilities will ever be meted out in an equitable fashion is hard to say. Perhaps an organization ought to be formed to represent all the individuals as a class and seek to obtain a large ownership stake in BP's assets.
Given how the Obama administration (unfairly in my estimation) forced GM and Chrysler into specially packaged bankruptcies and handed off a large chunk of each to the union pension funds instead of the rightful preferred stock holders, I am puzzled that they haven't already jumped in here where such a handoff appears more conscionable. When a company severely damages the economies of numerous states, I'm not sure it should still be setting its own course.
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
-Robert Frost
Deceptively simple.
