There are a lot of very tall people in town today, as the Kentucky, Cornell, West Virginia, and Washington basketball teams are here for the NCAA Hoops East Regionals. OK, maybe not Cornell. They’re probably still down in Ithaca. But the other fellas (and their fans) are here. I feel kinda sorry for the fans, really. While I think this is a good place to live (if you have a job), it’s not exactly what I’d call a tourist spot. Not at the end of March, anyway. If it was winter or summer, you’d have lots of outdoor activities to partake in, but right now things are kinda yucky (no snow, no green; mostly dirt and left-over road sand), and your choices are pretty much the bars or the malls. Oh, I suppose you could go to the Everson Art Museum or the Museum of Science and Technology, but, well, somehow I don’t see UK and WVU fans as big on modern art (or science). No offense to our friends from south of the Mason-Dixon line, of course. And the Washington fans won’t care either way; they’ll feel at home with the rain, and will probably have real good pot with them, so they can hang in their hotels and chill. But odds are we’ll have some Ashley Judd sightings around here, and it would be really nice to see her cry when Cornell beats Kentucky tomorrow night (not that I want to see her cry, mind you; she’s darn cute, and definitely the pick of the litter in that family. I’d just love to see Kentucky lose – not enough to stay up past midnight to see it, though).
Not that SU fans traveling out West are faring any better. I’m honestly not familiar with Salt Lake City, but I’m guessing the bars aren’t real exciting. My tip for fans would be to rent the first three seasons of ‘Big Love’ and get familiar with the natives.
In one of the most boneheaded scheduling moves ever, the NCAA (or CBS, or whatever cartel calls the shots) has scheduled Syracuse to play at the same time that the Eastern Regionals are taking place here. Pretty stupid, no? This has resulted in “only” 21,000 something tickets being sold (at $148 a pop).
Oh well, a relatively horrible day to deal with today. A stupid meeting at nine, a demo in front of uber-upper mucky mucks at three, and then a wake to attend after work. A very good day to get over with already.
Watch out for runaway monkeys.
One would think that Salt lake City, with all its Mormon morality (not to mention magic underwear) would be a sinless, pristine spot of choirs and churches. But, Salt Lake City sports signs on their lampposts which read: Do not pick up the prostitutes.
Today, an initiative that would legalize personal marijuana possession and allow regulated sales of marijuana to adults will qualify for California’s November general election ballot.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-gutwillig/ca-marijuana-legalization_b_511484.html
Scientists have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human through analysis of DNA from a finger bone unearthed in a Siberian cave.
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An international team has sequenced genetic material from the fossil showing that it is distinct from that of Neanderthals and modern humans.
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Ornaments were found in the same ground layer as the finger bone, including a bracelet.
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The analysis carried out by Johannes Krause from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues revealed the human from Denisova last shared a common ancestor with modern humans and Neanderthals about one million years ago.
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The Neanderthal and modern human evolutionary lines diverged much later, around 500,000 years ago. This shows that the individual from Denisova is the representative of a previously unknown human lineage that derives from a hitherto unrecognised migration out of Africa.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8583254.stm
Robert Culp, ‘I Spy’ Star, Has Died
Name that set
🙁 :gate:
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has a message for all the attorneys general and Republican lawmakers who are threatening lawsuits and claiming that an individual mandate for insurance coverage is unconstitutional: You don’t have to abide by it — just set up your own plan.
The Oregon Democrat isn’t inviting opponents to defy the newly-enacted health care law. Instead, he’s pointing out a provision in the bill that makes moot the argument over the legality of the individual mandate.
Speaking to the Huffington Post on Tuesday, Wyden discussed — for one of the first times in public — legislative language he authored which “allows a state to go out and do its own bill, including having no individual mandate.”
It’s called the “Empowering States to be Innovative” amendment. And it would, quite literally, give states the right to set up their own health care system — with or without an individual mandate or, for that matter, with or without a public option — provided that, as Wyden puts it, “they can meet the coverage requirements of the bill.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/wyden-health-care-lawsuit_n_511748.html
Rock photographer Jim Marshall dies at 74
Of course, Jim would sue me for this usage.
:blues: 🙁 :gate:
Johnny Maestro
:blues: 🙁 :gate:
Christiane Amanpour Makes The Beltway Very Nervous
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Mar 24, 2010 4:00pm