Zoo Expansion
Tonight we had a couple of new animals in the house. In the one image, you can see the pig pulling on the tail of the monkey.
And you wonder why I couldn't get a good picture of the two of them together.
« September 2007 | Main | November 2007 »
October 31, 2007
October 25, 2007
Under Pressure
You think Joe Torre's had it rough? Tell it to Martin Jol. Or Jose Mourinho. Or Sammy Lee. Or just about any of the other managers of the EPL.
Big Sam, under pressure in his brand new post at Newcastle United, cites the average two-year lifespan of EPL managers. Check out this revolving door of the Premier League teams since January 2006 (going back farther would have been too exhasuting):
First, the teams that have had two managers during that span:
- Tottenham Hotspur - Martin Jol (sacked 10/07) Juande Ramos
- Chelsea - Jose Mourinho (sacked 09/07) Avram Grant
- Manchester City - Stuart Pearce (sacked 05/07) Sven Goran Eriksson
- Newcastle United -Glen Roeder (resigned 05/07) Sam Allardyce
- Wigan Athletic - Paul Jewell (resigned 05/07) Chris Hutchings
- Fulham - Chris Coleman (sacked 04/07) Lawrie Sanchez
- West Ham United - Alan Pardew (sacked 12/06) Alan Curbishley
- Sunderland - Niall Quinn (resigned 08/06) Roy Keane
- Aston Villa - David O'Leary (sacked 06/06) Martin O'Neil
- Middlesbrough - Steve McClaren (resigned 05/06) Gareth Southgate
And three teams that have had two management changes within the past year-and-a-half (relegated Charlton Athletic is included to show off the Alan Curbishley/Alan Pardew dance):
- Derby County - Phil Brown (sacked 01/06) Terry Westley (resigned 05/06) Billy Davies
- Bolton Wanderers - Sam Allardyce (resigned 04/07) Sammy Lee (sacked 10/07) Gary Megson
- Charlton Athletic - Alan Curbishley (resigned 05/06) Iain Dowie (sacked 12/06) Alan Pardew
Finally, the teams who have had only a single manager in that time:
- Manchester United - Sir Alex Ferguson (11/86)
- Arsenal - Arsene Wenger (09/96)
- Birmingham City - Steve Bruce (12/01)
- Everton - David Moyes (03/02)
- Reading - Steve Coppell (10/03)
- Liverpool - Rafael Benitez (06/04)
- Blackburn Rovers - Mark Hughes (09/04)
- Portsmouth - Harry Redknapp (12/05)
But don't think that these guys are breathing easy. There are at least three guys on this list who are sweating bullets from week-to-week.
October 17, 2007
In Rainbows - Radiohead
The internets are all abuzz with various opinions on Radiohead's release strategy for this, their latest album. Was it a rebellion against record label hegemony? Or was it a cynical marketing ploy? Or just the right thing to do?
Aside from my delight that they actually released a new recording that sounds pretty good, I'm kinda "meh" on the whole internet download thing. My take is that it's about frickin' time. Since the Radiohead release, a handful of bands have announced similar intentions. Even the Material Girl is turning against the big labels.
As far as the music goes, it's very much a Radiohead-ish recording, albeit maybe a bit more poppy with fewer electronic hijinks found in the last few albums. Although I prefer the electronic edge of Kid A or Amnesiac, I'm enjoying In Rainbows, maybe even more so after three or four listens. Not bad for music that can be had for free...although I tossed the band about $5, keeping in line with a Record Archive used cd purchase seemed like a good place to be.
October 16, 2007
Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West
by Cormac McCarthy
Seth posted a quote-unquote review of Cormac McCarthy's recent novel The Road, so now I have to get my act together and post my thoughts on Blood Meridian, which I finally got around to reading last summer.
Except I (still) don't really know what to say about it. On the one hand, the writing is hauntingly beautiful, while on the other hand, the subject matter is often gruesome and devastating. Anyone who still nurtures a nostalgic view of the Old West, à la John Wayne or Dances With Wolves, will have these notions shaken by McCarthy's straightforward depiction of the brutality of life in the desert Southwest circa 1850. The plot traces the activities of the infamous Glanton Gang, detailing the atrocities committed by and toward this gang in chillingly cold and stark detail.
And since it might not be clear by my description thus far, let me say that this is the reason why you should read this book: McCarthy's writing, spare as it is, is brilliant and mesmerizing. It's one of those books that (assuming you're able to stomach it) will stay with you, one that you'll never forget.
I'm probably not doing justice to the book here. Perhaps I should have just followed the example of the normally not-at-a-loss-for-words David Foster Wallace who, when he listing this book among the five most underappreciated novels written since 1960, offered a three word review: “Don't even ask.”
October 14, 2007
Red-eye
Today, while running errands we bought some batteries for the digital camera, which explains why there haven't been many recent photos of the kids on the site lately. It only partly explains why we didn't get photographic evidence of Christopher's recent eye injury, the main reason being that we were pretty much too freaked out by the whole thing to even consider taking pictures.
A couple of Fridays ago, Christopher woke up complaining about his eyes--not unusual since he often has light sensitivity when he first wakes up. When Kari noticed him tearing up in the middle of eating his Cheerios, we took a closer look. What we saw was pretty scary. The iris of Christopher's eye was turning red--his cornea was filling with blood.
Of course, we got on the phone immediately and soon were riding the elevator up to the Eye Clinic at Strong Memorial. The doctors were great and responsive but, although we weren't waiting long, we could see that his eye was continuing to get worse during our brief wait. I should mention that this was happening in Christopher's blind eye. Due to his congenital glaucoma, his retina is totally detached in that eye, so we were worried, but not as panicked as we would have been (or as much as he would have been) if this had happened in his good eye.
We learned that this condition, which is called hyphema, can be caused by blunt trauma to the head or the eye itself. If this should happen to you, get your butt to the emergency room. THe increased pressure in the eye may cause further problems and the doctor needs to check for other signs of damage (detached retina, concussion, etc.) that may have resulted from whatever trauma may have occurred.
It turns out the Christopher is susceptible to this because the blood vessels behind his detached retina are especially fragile, and since that eye is already non-functional, we were told that as long as Chris is not in any pain and the blood eventually drains, there is little to worry about--there isn't much more damage that can be done. The doctors asked us to avoid “activity,” which well, Christopher is a 3-yr-old boy with no shortage of energy, so we took that advice with a grain of salt.
Over the weekend his eye improved and the follow-up appointment confirmed that all is well. It was pretty freaky, though. I wish I had taken a picture, but it occurs to me that it would have looked very similar to camera-flash-induced red-eye. So, using the magic of Photoshop red-eye addition, here's a dramatization of what it looked like at the time.
October 3, 2007
First Things First
Just a couple of days after posting about climate change, I ran across this talk by Bjørn Lomborg, in the form of a TEDTalks podcast. It was one of those serendipitous discoveries, as Lomborg was the primary target of The New York Reveiw of Books article that criticizes those who downplay concerns over climate change.
Lomborg basically challenges the increasingly popular perception that climate change should be the primary focus for our efforts to improve the world. His argument is intriguing, advocating that we create a list of all of the world's problems, define specific actionable steps for solving those problems, and prioritize the list based on where efforts will have the most significant impact. He's suggesting that we focus on implementing easy solutions rather than worry about tackling the biggest problems. This all comes across as a breath of fresh air in the climate change debate. Finally, someone is advocating a hard-nosed, realistic approach to the problem--except, wait a minute, what is Lomborg's conclusion? Basically, we are to forget about global warming because that's too big a problem with no easy solution. There are better ways to spend our money.
And what there to argue with? The four priority actions we should concentrate on first are HIV/AIDs prevention, reducing worldwide malnutrition, global access to free markets, and malaria prevention. These are singled out based on the relatively low-cost solutions that will result in the greatest levels of improvement. This should make perfect sense, except why am I so creeped out by it? Does it really make sense to apply a personal productivity approach to solving the world's problems?
I guess my biggest beef is that Lomborg presumes that solving global problems is a zero sum game--each solution is drawing from some limited pool of funds. This might be true to some extent, but when one hears of the vast sums of money being spent every day in a California-sized patch of desert, it seems that there are plenty of untapped funds available for all of the good causes further down Lomborg's priority list.
