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In America, we play football with our hands and we call the what the rest of the world calls football soccer, which people actually play with their feet.

I don't know if the 2006 World Cup is just plain boring (think Brazil, so far) or America's ABC and ESPN2 make it look boring. I am no soccer fan myself and not even every four years. Basically the commentators fail to generate any excitement at all. Whenever I listen to their comments, I will think of people running SQL statements in the background, SELECT nbr_goals from goal_table WHERE player='someplayer';. The comments are laden with statistics but totally lacks excitement. I remember in the old days when television was uncommon, people actually had to listen to radio to know the match, back then the commentators are really entertainers in their own rights. Not so for soccer here.

If you don't find the play exciting then at least you should find the hairstyle more exciting. In today's NYT's Styles section, Eric Wilson did an excellent job dissecting the players' sytle, from hair to tattoo. The major disappointment perhaps is Beckham, the most valuable/expensive player who brought metrosexual to the rest of us. The once advanced practitioner of funny hairstyle is no longer in the hair game, at least not on the first game.

This post sucks, and so are yours ... OKAY, maybe not yours.

Kentucky Derby

Pear Green

Dow Is doing The Limbo Rock

Let's see how low it can go. Dow closes at 10,706.14, down 86.44.

Heath Related.

Coffee is said to protect liver from liver cirrhosis, especially alcholic cirrhosis.

Breast-Feed or Else. Breast-feeding is the gold standard, anything else is just inferior. That's pretty much scientific conclusive. However, if the mother is not able to do it, infant formula is probably a god-send. Statistically speaking, mothers who are better educated, more affluent, relatively older and married are more likely to breast-feed.

Dow diarrhea continues unabated

Another day, another 100 points drop. Or close to 100 points drop.

In anticipation of Bernanke's 3 speeches this week, the market reacts by selling more.

Windows Vista Beta

It's available for download for the brave or stupid and reckless. For the record, I am still stuck in Windows Millennium Edition at home, remember Y2K, the Millennium bug? And is the millennieum zero based or one based, like the Millennieum should begin 2001 instead of 2000?

I celebrate Year 2000 with Microsoft every time I power up my PC, even we are almost half way through year 2006.

Straight From the Horse's Mouth:-

A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:

• A modern processor (at least 800MHz¹).
• 512 MB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

Windows Vista Premium Ready PCs
To get an even better Windows Vista experience, including the Windows Aero user experience, ask for a Windows Vista Capable PC that is designated Premium Ready, or choose a PC that meets or exceeds the Premium Ready requirements described below. Features available in specific premium editions of Windows Vista, such as the ability to watch and record live TV, may require additional hardware.

A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor¹.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero².
• 128 MB of graphics memory.
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive³.
• Audio output capability.
• Internet access capability.

Roland Garros

Nadal soundly beat up Federer.

ABC GMA, NBC Today

ABC broadcasts Good Morning America in High Definition, while NBC's Today still does it the bad old way, 480i standard definition. And NBC is wondering why ABC is closing the gap in rating. No wonder Katie Couric left.

Cast Iron Is The Real Non-stick

[Picture: Lars Klove for The New York Times, all rights belong to their rightful owners.]

Teflon non-stick cookware is bullshit. Cast iron is the real non-stick. Apparently I am not alone in this department of thinking. See this New York Times article here. A well seasoned cast iron pan gives you the best non-stick cooking experience for a long long time.

American Runs on Dunkin

If you despise anything Starbucks, you are in luck. McDonald's, Burger King, and Dunkin Donuts are all competing for your crave for premium and not-too-premium caffeine indulgence.

Here is Dunkin's average-guy ad campaign, he sure looks like he is so capable of beating up all the Starbucks snobs. I don't know if he looks average, but I think he looks pretty scarry.

"Hey I just killed my 5th Starbucks snob ... this week, want to be the sixth?" You see this Dunkin man, you better run.

[photo linked from New York Times, all rights belong to their rightful owners]

Arnold Newman dead at 88

[self-portrait of Mr. Newman taken in his studio in 1987, image linked from the New York Times. All Rights belong to their rightful owners]

The pioneer of the so called environmental protraiture, Arnold Newman is dead at 88. June 6, 2006 didn't end the world but it did end the life of Mr. Newman.

Katrina and Louis Vuitton

You can't use FEMA fund to buy a Vuitton bag.

Last year, some FEMA and Red Cross issued debit cards for Katrina victims were alleged being used to pay for Vuitton handbags and booze. More here.

You can't be a victim in style and that's the law.

Hong Kong Media Get Global News Coverage

While the notorious Bus Uncle is finishing up its 15 minutes of fame, Hong Kong media get another coverage from Reuters. When news media become the news, it's usually bad news. Commercial Radio has to publicly apologize for a poll in which respondents are asked to pick their favorite sexual assault targets. Some starlets were pride of being the favorite picks.

Google Spreadsheet

As reported, Google is going to beta it's Google Spreadsheet today at its http://labs.google.com. As of now, I still am not able to see the link there. Or I am not sure how it's rolled out to its potential beta users. Anyway, if I see it, great, if not, that's OKAY too.

I always have mixed feelings to Excel. I thought on the one hand it's great (for small business), on the other hand, it's the biggest evil in a corporate enterprise environment. I always believe you should have a central data reportory, or at least in theory, you should. If you have to resort to Excel to do any analysis, then your enterprise software is really lacking and what's worse, you have data untamed lying around everywhere in spreadsheets. Sometimes, I think Excel is the worse thing you can have in a corporate environment.

But accountants really love Excel.

UPDATE: I became of the those beta testers of Google Spreadsheets. It isn't Excel, but then I don't expect or want it to be like Excel. I tried right-click, and of course, it gives web page behavior as opposed to right-click mouse menu. And I couldn't find formula help. I did resort to go to Excel 2003 to get the help function on certain formula. I was able to use =PMT() and =IPMT() to calculate mortgage payments.

666

Let's see if today is the end of the world as we know it.

6 days old news: Nikon D2Xs

On June 1, Nikon announced D2Xs, an incremental upgrade to its flagship D2X digital SLR. Nikon D2Xs may be hawked by Kate Moss or her once boyfriend Pete Doghery or both. The alleged ad would feature Pete smashing the D2Xs recklessly or using the D2Xs as an ashtray.

I totally made that up.

Miscellaneous

President Bush talked about marriage. I really don't give a damn. He should be talking about the economy, job, and the war in Iraq. He shouldn't in the bedroom business.

Mr. Bernanke, once again, proved himself could and would screw up the stock market. He effectively talked down the DOW almost 200 points. Wall Street interpreted his remarks at some event as the Fed might raise short term interest rate at month end.

NYC needs citywide wi-fi as the New York Time editorial elloquently stated today. Because no matter which side of the digital divide you are on, you deserve to waste your time on the World Wide Web.

Mr. Tom Robinson is indeed a descendent of Genghis Khan.

History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989

Spelling Bee

ABC is live broadcasting the Scripps National Spelling Bee, in HD. Spelling is a competitive sport I guess. I am just tuning in and is recording the show just for further and future humiliation for myself.

I know none of the words.

Stupidity reaffirmed.

UPDATE:
WELTSCHMERZ and URSPRACHE, the two words that separate the runner-up, Finola Hackett and the champion, Katharine Close.