Golfman, a Gentleman's Hero

But No One Said it was going to be Easy
Stories Retrieved by Pat Darnell

March 12, 2008
I'm Here to Help That Loose Swing [SOURCE]

Noted swing coach Butch Harmon announced he's quit working with John Daly because the golfer is more interested in drinking than practicing.

"The most important thing in his life is getting drunk," Harmon told Doug Ferguson, the great golf writer for the Associated Press.

What? John Daly likes to drink? Next you'll tell me that he's been divorced three times, he said his latest wife tried to stab him last year, he said he's lost between $50 to $60 million in gambling, cigarettes are a permanent appendage linked to his lips, his gut is the size of Rhode Island, he's often quit playing during rounds, and he once said, "I believe nicotine plus caffeine equals protein."

Oh, that's actually all true, too. (Todd Jones on March 12, 2008)

John Daly: The golfer was taken into custody in October by Winston-Salem, N.C., police after he was reportedly found drunk outside a Hooters restaurant. Officers said Daly "appeared extremely intoxicated and uncooperative." As a result of this and other transgressions, Daly says he's been suspended for six months from the PGA Tour. [SOURCE]

Daly said he hopes to play well enough to earn sponsor exemptions on the PGA Tour when the suspension is lifted.

"John's New Year's resolution is do everything he can to make positive things happen on the golf course," Martin said. "I hope he can walk the walk. The talk sounds great. But it's going to be him working hard and staying out of trouble, and having success on the golf course."

Daly became an overnight sensation when he won the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick as the ninth alternate, introducing his powerful "grip it and rip it" style to golf. Four years later, he won the British Open at St. Andrews. But his career has been dragged down by two trips to alcohol rehab, four marriages, gambling losses and other off-course episodes that have made him an attraction beyond his prodigious length off the tee.

Asked why he was suspended, Daly pointed to four incidents during the year.

After a rain delay at Innisbrook during the Florida swing, he emerged from a Hooters hospitality tent with Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden as his caddie for the final seven holes of the round, prompting a split with swing coach Butch Harmon.

While promoting a golf course in Missouri, Daly did a regional television interview wearing only blue jeans — no shirt, no shoes — while showing how to play one of the holes. Then at the Buick Open, during a pro-am that featured Kid Rock in overalls, Daly revved up the fans by hitting one drive off the top of a beer can.

He drew the most attention from the night in jail. Daly told the AP that his friends called police when they feared he had passed out, unaware he sleeps with his eyes open when he's had too much to drink. Daly was not charged, rather put in jail under a state law called "Assistance to Intoxicated Persons." But his jail photo was an Internet sensation.

"The picture didn't help," Daly said. "People think I got arrested when I didn't get arrested. It is what it is. I've got to deal with it and go on. Whatever reason the tour has, maybe a positive will come out of this."

Daly has not had full status on the PGA Tour the last two years. He finished No. 232 on the money list this year with $56,017 in 17 events, missing the cut 10 times and withdrawing twice. (By DOUG FERGUSON | AP Golf Writer; 12.31.2008. Calling it his lowest point, John Daly says PGA Tour has suspended him for 6 months )

Please, Don't Eat that Cat

2008 -- 2009
by Pat Darnell

We know it is New Year's Eve and tension has reached its breaking point, Pat Doherty, but if you could just restrain from partaking cat wings tonight, it would be appreciated.

New Year is not all that it is cracked up to be... it really is only just a night like any other night.

Remember it takes a whole village to make a soup. You will be fine tomorrow afternoon.

(Don't Eat your Cat, by Pribek)

PART TWO: A Hat, those Lips, pose Akimbo and Prophesy Prefigure

[Lerner, M. A. M. 2007; SOURCE]
The New Nostradamus
Words By Michael A.M. Lerner | Photos By Ethan Hill

Can a fringe branch of mathematics forecast the future? A special adviser to the CIA, Fortune 500 companies, and the U.S. Department of Defense certainly thinks so.

If you listen to Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, and a lot of people don’t, he’ll claim that mathematics can tell you the future. In fact, the professor says that a computer model he built and has perfected over the last 25 years can predict the outcome of virtually any international conflict, provided the basic input is accurate.

What’s more, his predictions are alarmingly specific. His fans include at least one current presidential hopeful, a gaggle of Fortune 500 companies, the CIA, and the Department of Defense. Naturally, there is also no shortage of people less fond of his work.

“Some people think Bruce is the most brilliant foreign policy analyst there is,” says one colleague. “Others think he’s a quack.”

For instance -- Back in March 2004, when al-Qaeda bombed a Madrid train station, influencing the course of Spain’s general election three days later, a lot of U.S. security folks were nervous. Worried that al-Qaeda might try something similar here in the run-up to the November, 2004, presidential elections, the Pentagon hired Bueno de Mesquita to run some data through his forecasting model to tell them what to expect. The results were unequivocal. “I said there would be no homeland attack. I also indicated that bin Laden’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, would resurface around Thanksgiving, 2004,” he says. Just after the elections in November that year, Zawahiri released a new videotape. Bueno de Mesquita was right on both counts. “One of the things government needs most is advice that’s not wishy-washy. I try to be as precise as I can.” (GOOD; magazine)

[blah, blah, blah...] Then this Comment:

Do homework first.

For all of you who are questioning Bueno de Mesquita's methods, predictions, etc., I suggest you do your homework first. It's not all that difficult to find his publications. A quick internet search will yield his curriculum vita which lists most of them.

While many of you may not have access to them online, you can certainly go to any local university library and gain access to at least part of them. I would refer you first to his work entitled The War Trap (1981) which is a standard on most international relations reading lists (at least in graduate school).

Then I would direct you to a follow-up piece, "The War Trap Revisited," in the American Political Science Review. Then maybe you could check out some critiques of his work such as one that appeared in the June 1984 edition of The Journal of Conflict Resolution. That piece is followed by another piece by BdM defending his work. You can also check out works such as War and Reason (1992) co-authored with David Lalman or Forecasting Policy Futures and The Logic of Political Survival (2003) co-authored with Alastair Smith, Randolph Siverson, and James Morrow (quickly becoming a stable of graduate education in political science as well).

His predictions are not something conjured up as if out of a book of spells and incantations. His methods have been rigorously tested and critiqued over time by some of the top scholars in the field.

His methods, as with those of any other scholar of rational choice and game theory, are based on basic assumptions about values and preferences of individuals and societies as well as their attitudes toward risk.

Is he perfect in his predictions? No, of course he's not.

Does he do a good job? Yes. Calculating and predicting human action, even that which many people are not sure is understandable (like that of many dictators), is something BdM seems to have been able to do well thus far.

For those who are critics: Before you criticize him, I would suggest you try to find a more accurate means of prediction. Otherwise, you will not be heard, nor will your critiques.

Or we could just ask Brian Jones if these lines are parallel each other? And rely on the Eight Ball foreteller... or... who the hell knows? What do we want to know anyway... ?

Chanukah for the Ages: December 21 - 29, 2008

Sunday Things to Talk About

Hobbes_icon_aol_tiny by Charlie Scrabbles on Dec 21, 2008 12:26 PM EST in News

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year for all you Reds fans out there in the Northern Hemisphere. It's also the first night of Hanukkah, for all you 'nukkahs out there. As Christmas approaches, things really slow down in the baseball in the world. But we here at Red Reporter never stop. Here's a few things up for discussion today:

Ty Wigginton is being courted by a number of teams, our Reds chief among them. The Indians, Pirates, and Giants are also in the running. According to Nick Cafardo, the Reds would like to use him as a super-sub, a-la the recently departed Ryan Freel. This begs the question: if the Reds like Wiggy as a utility guy and we end up signing him, does this affect the Jerry Hairston Jr situation?

Norris Hopper is doing his darnedest to get ready for Spring Training. Is anyone seriously entertaining the idea of him being anything more than defensive reserve/pinch runner?

Doug has an update for us on Juan Francisco and his conquest of the Dominican Winter League. Superlatives are failing me.

Justin released his review of the 2008 season for the Reds. In case you forgot, they didn't do very well. It's a pretty bleak affair, especially if you were hoping a few tweaks and improvements here or there could vault this team into playoff contention. Merry Christmas indeed.

Did you catch that Nat Geo program about Yellowstone and its Surface Manifestations?

Retrieved and Commented by Pat Darnell [SOURCE PHOTO]

Smith directs the Yellowstone Seismic Network, which operates seismic stations around the park. He said the quakes have ranged in strength from barely detectable to one of magnitude 3.8 that happened Saturday. A magnitude 4 quake is capable of producing moderate damage.

Earthquakes Rattle Yellowstone Park
By MEAD GRUVER, AP | posted: 34 MINUTES AGO | [SOURCE]

"There doesn't seem to be anything to be alarmed about," Vallie said.

Smith said it's difficult to say what might be causing the tremors. He pointed out that Yellowstone is the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago.

He said Yellowstone remains very geologically active — and its famous geysers and hot springs are a reminder that a pool of magma still exists five to 10 miles underground.

"That's just the surface manifestation of the enormous amount of heat that's being released through the system," he said.

Yellowstone has had significant earthquakes as well as minor ones in recent decades. In 1959, a magnitude 7.5 quake near Hebgen Lake just west of the park triggered a landslide that killed 28 people.

Commentary and background:
I had a Geology Professor at Trinity in 1974 named Dr McGannon. He had a General George Patton attitude in his lecture delivery to us tenderfoots gathered in the geology auditorium. He closed and locked the door at the precise hour class started. He brought in the world outside with stories of "cataclysmic volcano activity." Shoot, he even made sedimentary rock formations exciting.

It is like this, Prof McGannon said in his rather loquacious fashion that the USA will suffer a large "mantle" shift toward the end of forty-five years from now... or then, and that is now within the next fifteen years. He said the only unusual thing about it will be that so many people will experience the "cataclysmic event."

God rest his soul, Dr McGannon has passed away due to a heart condition that we all knew about, as we were always careful not to startle him on field trips. However, his words echo on in my head, regardless. He touted that the degree of damages will be for the first time measured in property and casualty losses by humans. The event he says "has happened before" in earth history; evidence in the geologic formations tell the whole story of large transitions in earth's crust.

The professor certainly proved it to me over the next three semesters. I just want to point out that in this time 1974-6 Tectonics was only a theory. There was no proof of the hundreds of theories explaining global tectonics in Prof McGannon's time.

Today tectonics is taught in elementary school like Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 14-hundred and ninety-two... and landed on the Caribbean Plate thinking he had landed on the Indian Plate... badda bing; badda boom.

Therefore, I have avoided settling in seismic areas all of my years following Trinity U. Apparently Yellowstone is one area of enormous potential for large thermoplastic ash flow, similar to a caldera that formed it over 500 million years ago. National Geographic has been showing a bit of the potential in its TV series. From this story in 2007 activity is on the rise at our national park, and surface manifestations are brilliant.

Yellowstone Is Rising on Swollen "Supervolcano"
Richard A. Lovett | for National Geographic News | November 8, 2007

Yellowstone National Park is rising. Its central region, called the Yellowstone caldera, has been moving upward since mid-2004 at a rate of up to three inches (seven centimeters) a year—more than three times faster than has ever been measured.

Grand Prismatic Spring is one of Yellowstone National Park's many hot springs and geysers fueled by underground thermal energy. A new study has found that Yellowstone is rising faster than has ever been measured before, due to an influx of magma several miles beneath the surface. [PHOTO Photograph courtesy Robert B. Smith/Science]

Dark Night RANK on December 30, 2008

Aftermarket Casket Accessories, Cadillac, Eartha Kitt and Heath Ledger
by Pat Darnell

January 2008 an actor died. It is an actor who one-upped, and transshipped a role Jack Nicholson had pegged before -- as Australian Heath Ledger took it over the ledge. But in the end Heath Ledger will have paid the freight in total.

Heathwick Ledger was buried, allegedly, in a Cadillac of a mahogany casket, loaded with appurtenances. Why is this still relevant in December 2008, twelve months later? I don't know either, but if you ask someone who does, Dark Knight recently came out on DVD , and everyone is getting a second look at the numbing performance of Heath Ledger in role of villain, Joker, nemesis of the Batman.

Batman kid stuff has amassed a long history in film, so that it's not kid stuff anymore.. in fact it is almost more famous than Waco and the Branch Davidian. Furthermore, "In fact dozens of actors portrayed villains and henchmen on Batman, four criminals appeared frequently although they were sometimes played by different people." For instance original television bandits list these heavy's:

* Burgess Meredith as the Penguin
* Cesar Romero as the Joker
* Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, and Lee Meriwether (in Batman: The Movie) as the Catwoman
* Frank Gorshin and John Astin as the Riddler

How did that one end? Demolition, of course:

At the end of the third season, ABC planned to cut the budget by eliminating Chief O'Hara and Robin. Batgirl would become Batman's full time partner. Both Dozier and West opposed this idea, and ABC canceled the show a short time later. Weeks later, NBC offered to pick the show up for a fourth season and even restore it to its twice a week format, if the sets were still available for use. However, NBC's offer came too late: Fox had already demolished the sets a week before. NBC didn't want to pay the $800,000 to rebuild, so the offer was withdrawn. Batman was replaced on ABC by the sitcom The Second Hundred Years. (wkpda)

Other popular villains included George Sanders, Otto Preminger, and Eli Wallach as Mr. Freeze, Victor Buono as King Tut, and Vincent Price as Egghead. (ibid: note -- a modest Aside from portraying super-criminals, another coveted spot was the Batclimb Cameo)

She also dies in 2008 -- Eartha Kitt Sexy and sultry Eartha Kitt died on Christmas Day in her Connecticut home at the age of 81... "was known as a fighter and many fans loved the famous -- growl and purr -- she became synonymous with in the “Batman” series decades ago. Kitt was among the first set of African American sex symbols in Hollywood that was able to transcend race across America. Along with her, actresses Lena Horne, Diahnn Carroll and Dorothy Dandridge were mavericks."

...she [Eartha] was sure that picking cotton in the fields of South Carolina, where she called home, would not be her future. By 1953, Kitt had taken movie audiences by storm and had her first hit song, “Santa Baby,” for which she finally received a gold record just before she died. (SOURCE)

Her most popular hit song was “C'est Si Bon,” which Kitt was often performing at cabaret shows and on stage whenever she performed... One of the liveliest performers ever on the stage.
Forty years ago, America's cultural icons expressed the frustration of the American people with the failure of President Lyndon Johnson to end this country's undeclared war in Vietnam by boldly demanding peace.

"The nation's most respected newsman, CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, explained to a national television audience after the Tet Offensive that the war had gone horribly awry.

"Singer Johnny Cash, whose music and style had made him a hero of blue-collar Americans, described himself as "a dove with claws" and began singing the anti-war song "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream." (Nichols, John; December 29, 2008 Eartha Kitt: The patriot who was right all along)

Kitt moved abroad in the late sixties after a spat with then-First Lady, Lady Byrd Johnson, complaining about the treatment of troops during the Vietnam War.

But the most direct and powerful anti-war statement of the period was delivered by singer Eartha Kitt at the height of her celebrity. [Eartha] was invited to a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson. But the first lady was surprised when she asked Kitt about the Vietnam War. "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," the singer told the first lady and the 50 other women at the luncheon. "They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

The first lady reportedly burst into tears. The president was furious. Kitt was blacklisted. She was investigated by the FBI and the CIA and ended up on the "enemies list" of Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon. (ibid)

Then where does that RANK all this in the end of 1968? The Dark Knight is considered the best film of year 2008, forty years later, that's what. And MooPig "Movie Critiques Department" has agreed on that little absolutism. It turns out Batman is not a favorite of post-World War II veterans, no matter how one packages it. And it turns out not too many of those WW II guys are still around. That makes this story even more indicative of driftwood story lines: as our WWII veteran numbers wane, Batman popularity waxes. So what was changing, one asks in 1968?

Whereas ABC and Fox were expecting a hip and fun, yet still serious, adventure show, Dozier, who loathed comic books, concluded the only way to make the show work was to do it as a pop art camp comedy. Originally, espionage novelist Eric Ambler [Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 - 22 October 1998) ]was to write the motion picture that would launch the TV series, but he dropped out after learning of Dozier's camp comedy approach.

The same pattern was repeated in the following episode until the villain was defeated in a major brawl where the action was punctuated by superimposed onomatopoeic words, as in comic book fight scenes "POW!", "BAM!", "ZOKK!"

The series utilized a narrator -- producer William Dozier, uncredited -- who parodied the breathless narration style of the 1940s serials. He would end many of the cliffhanger episodes by intoning, "Tune in tomorrow — same bat-time, same bat-channel!", or, just "... same time, same channel!".

In the 1960's parody had taken hold of almost every TV show. JFK is elected from the ranks of WW II veterans of foreign wars, and catches what would be conveyed on RCA TV's nationwide: Charisma. Our 60's decade was the height of the WW II veterans' return to normalcy.

Charisma with exciting new technology uniquely threatened status-quo, and a new era had been born from war trashed and interrupted lives.

Adam West enjoys the story that he was part of two of the three Big B's of the 1960s: Batman, The Beatles and Bond. West says he was actually invited to play Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service based on his popularity as Batman, but declined the role as he felt it should be played by a British actor -- ironically, the role went to an Australian, George Lazenby.

Synopsis First Place RANK 2008? Bat Man 1946 or so -- is portrayed as a depressed heir that will improve crime-fighting technology to a high degree. He has subverted pulp industry to pick up his story. He makes it through to post-war parody, as he then peaks and his story hits the big screen.

The Bat Man is crime fighter tech master, and he remains ahead of reality; precedes any new episode; and out maneuvers all imitators and villains. Several performers bring the tale to broader audiences, including Eartha Kitt. The good Samaritan portrayal of Bat Man has achieved techno materialism to a higher degree than can be found in reality; as his inheritance would have provided if it were true.

It ends worse in reality, as Joker the Saga's own creation of an indigestible villain, evaporates from himself and his self-inflicted rancor, as an unworthy son might; as Heath Ledger has.

This would complete a fifty year cycle of festering hero worship that ends in techno barbarism akin to Mad Max style cinema of the Australian influx -- such as: Plenty of space; no where to run -- if it did not also have a death of a bona-fide rebel also attached to its history.

The best years of the cycle clearly would have been the early and mid term years of parody, and campy TV, with Eartha Kitt, and BatClimb Cameo blindside climber drop ins. I would have put Heath Ledger in a Cadillac casket too, but if I were in charge, I would have kept the mahogany out of the ground... and stow it for after market auctions, if you know what I mean?

Heath Ledger: "His face chalk-white, his hair green and his mouth a sliced red grimace, the handsome 28-year-old Australian actor looked frighteningly true to the character in the Alan Moore graphic novel, "Batman: The Killing Joke."

I'm in my Fifties now, so I'm going to start suing

What, Me MAD?
by Pat Darnell
I think I will start with a Class Action calling out Mainstream Actresses --

To kickoff the new year, I will file a petition to get back all that is taken from our family by actresses and actors who do not maintain their natural looks. First off Meg Ryan will receive a copy for cutting down her nose so that she looks like Charo when I see her in movies now, 2008. "I don't pay my buck fiddy to see what the actress thinks I should see, I pay to see Meg Ryan as she is," says I. "Give me back my money."

Then I might follow up with a suit against the computer industry for finding so many ways to make it more complicated to write a letter to my friends.

I should include the education system in my appeals for teaching me binary math when I was in elementary school. I think it messed with my logical development, and interrupted my growth. "You want proof? Just look at this blog... yeah, proof, up yours!"

Women who have scorned me, false gods, and the entire authorship of Scientology will hear from me: including Wayne Newton for not singing high notes anymore.

I might single out for class action suit demanding compensation to MAD Magazine readers for MAD going on TV with stupidity and tasteless parody... oh yeah that is what they do. Maybe I will have to rethink that one.

Other groups who need to answer for their less than ideal performance: the IMF, beekeepers, and meat eaters. Hey New York, do you ever eat a steak? Philly tell me you don't eat a lot of steak? How could you let the beef industry falter so far away from its main purpose? Beef recalls in 2008, where's the beef buddy boys?

Beekeepers, how did you obviously fall down on the job so completely and lose all the bees?

International Monetary Fund, how did you just go and let US bankers and securities groups dip into your enormous cache of funds with hedges and gambles? Aren't there any other nations in there to watch things?

So, Meg, you have done so much damage to yourself, it seems you have suffered enough. So I am going to remind you with this punitive subpoena to appear before the court of human race opinion as you ought to be, not as you so often make us try to envision you might be.. How do you like them apples, old girl? You've been served.

This is going to be a GREAT year, 2009. I am truly excited!

Why Ikki Peed Ya

An appeal from Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales | or just another Bailout?

PHOTO: Jimmy "Appeal" Wales

Dear Reader,

Today I am going to ask you to support Wikipedia with a donation. This might sound unusual: Why does one of the world's five most popular web properties ask for financial support from its users?

Wikipedia is built differently from almost every other top 50 website. We have a small number of paid staff, just twenty-three. Wikipedia content is free to use by anyone for any purpose. Our annual expenses are less than six million dollars. Wikipedia is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which I founded in 2003.

At its core, Wikipedia is driven by a global community of more than 150,000 volunteers - all dedicated to sharing knowledge freely. Over almost eight years, these volunteers have contributed more than 11 million articles in 265 languages. More than 275 million people come to our website every month to access information, free of charge and free of advertising.

But Wikipedia is more than a website. We share a common cause: Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's our commitment.

Your donation helps us in several ways. Most importantly, you will help us cover the increasing cost of managing global traffic to one of the most popular websites on the Internet. Funds also help us improve the software that runs Wikipedia -- making it easier to search, easier to read, and easier to write for. We are committed to growing the free knowledge movement world-wide, by recruiting new volunteers, and building strategic partnerships with institutions of culture and learning.

Wikipedia is different. It's the largest encyclopedia in history, written by volunteers. Like a national park or a school, we don't believe advertising should have a place in Wikipedia. We want to keep it free and strong, but we need the support of thousands of people like you.

I invite you to join us: Your donation will help keep Wikipedia free for the whole world.

Thank you,

Jimmy Wales

Bud Light Commercial...

Goat Heads of the Mists... waiting for Cloud Nine

Retrieved by Pat Darnell




HERE is a spectacular site for Cloud Watching... you will not be disappointed. That's all from here today. Enjoy your break, holiday, hangover... what ever it is my three readers have.

Celebrity ReUnions We'd Like to See... 2008

fer instance:

Ozzy and the Bat

Don't underestimate the power of Little Lars, and the next generations of evil, sado, performers. Ozzy, you really need to make up with that bat you bit its head off.

We cannot abide with fifty years of residual Ozzy impersonators... please?

And Now for some Cheap Trick

From the dead "Red Ant" release of 1997... first single release

Surfin' ain't easy

The Gadgeteer

Gadget reviews by Julie Strietelmeier and friends

You 404’d it. Gnarly, dude.

Surfin’ ain’t easy, and right now, you’re lost at sea. No worries, though—simply pick an option from the list below, and you’ll be back out riding the waves of the Internet in no time.

* Hit the “back” button on your browser. It’s perfect for situations like this!
* Head on over to the home page.
* Punt.

le Bufano says: send me your wish list -- HardBody Black Wave PRO
180 - 360 Disc CD Case

Christ is Born

and we're Groovin with Jesus...

2008 Wrap Up

by Pat Darnell



Hmmmm..

...let's dwell a moment:

2008? Yes... well

Frightening...

still,

mostly Harmless.

Santa's List

Is the day after Christmas the day of Christmas Remorse... let's ask the financial district:
Retrieved [verbatim] by Pat Darnell

Although Ponzi served all comers, a majority of his customers shared his Italian roots. He never advertised and spoke to reporters only after he was a huge success, relying instead on his paisanos to spread news of his wizardry. As Ponzi walked through a crowd one day, a woman yelled: "You're the greatest Italian in history!" Ponzi demurred, saying he was only the third-greatest: "Christopher Columbus discovered America and Marconi discovered the wireless." But another fan answered: "You discovered the money!"

If the allegations against Madoff are true - he reportedly admitted that his $50 billion business was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme" - he borrowed key ideas from Ponzi and tailored others to fit a different age.

Madoff and Ponzi: Reflections of their times [SOURCE]
By Mitchell Zuckoff | December 21, 2008
BEYOND a taste for expensive suits and fancy financial footwork, Bernard Madoff and Charles Ponzi might at first seem to have little in common.

Equally telling is the way both men allegedly exploited investors' motivations, using mirror-image strategies.

Ponzi maximized post-World War I populist resentments against Boston Brahmins, telling reporters: "The truth is, bankers and businessmen have been doing plenty for themselves under the present banking systems, but they have done little for anybody else." His investors cheered and rained money.

Madoff took a 21st-century approach, tapping into an anti-populist desire for exclusive access. His arrest unleashed stories of wealthy people who begged to invest and others who joined his country clubs to win his favor. The absence of volatility in his returns further convinced his select investors that they were in on something special.

Mitchell Zuckoff is a professor of journalism at Boston University and author of "Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend."
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

PHOTO: Stephen Harper leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, was elected the twenty-second Prime Minister of Canada in January 2006. Can't get enough; here's more for you -- Scandalpedia... HERE

THE COLOR for 2009... who makes this up?

"GREAT. Get out those old SEARS rain coats and 'golashes, Maw; Mimosa is Back!"


Color of the Year 2009: Goodbye Blue Iris, Hello Mimosa

2007-12-10-blueiris.jpg
Last year Pantone's 2008 color choice was deep, mysterious and definitely on the cool side of the color wheel.

It was Blue Iris (shown here) and was described as a hue that "combines the stable and calming aspects of blue with the mystical and spiritual qualities of purple. Blue Iris satisfies the need for reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and excitement".

Well, according to Pantone's announcement today, it looks like we've had just about enough mystery and excitement and now we need some hope and radiance...in the form of Mimosa.

‘PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa’ Color of the year 2009
December 04, 2008 (USA)
[SOURCE] | Retrieved by Pat Darnell
Pantone, an X-Rite company and the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, announced PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa, a warm, engaging yellow, as the color of the year for 2009.

In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow.

“The color yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “Mimosa also speaks to enlightenment, as it is a hue that sparks imagination and innovation.”

Best illustrated by the abundant flowers of the Mimosa tree and the sparkle of the brilliantly hued cocktail, the 2009 color of the year represents the hopeful and radiant characteristics associated with the color yellow

Mimosa is a versatile shade that coordinates with any other color, has appeal for men and women, and translates to both fashion and interiors. Look for women’s accessories, home furnishings, active sportswear and men’s ties and shirts in this vibrant hue.

Mimosa is also one of the 3,000 colors available in Pantone’s line of superior-quality, eco-friendly paint. PANTONE Paints combine the accuracy of PANTONE Colors with the beauty of high-performance Dutch paints. Perfect for the kitchen or family room, painting a wall in Mimosa will add warmth and cheerfulness to any room, especially during the winter months. Mimosa also creates the illusion of being connected to the outside, making small rooms feel open and inviting.