what in the world...?

visit me at school...

...so to speak! I am going to be updating my other blog for a bit.

Stop by at Lovedale: School Tales From the Blue Hills!

as the headline turneth...

...noticed on BBC today. Obama cabinet: Unlucky or naive?

Don't say it. Don't say it. Don't say it...  :-)

On another note....

For a campaign that was so tightly controlled in its messaging, how did this one get tthrough? Maybe I should let it speak for itself.

Speaking at Caterpillar in Peoria, IL. Obama quoted Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc. "(He) said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off."

Only to have Owens contradict that statment after the President left.

Asked if the stimulus package would be able to stop the 22,000 layoffs or not, Owens said, "I think realistically no. The truth is we're going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again"  ABC News

Caterpillar tried a bit of damage control right after. But really, it's the President's team who should have been more careful. Align your messaging. Ahead of time.

Interestingly, it looks like many Caterpillar workers don't support the stimulus plan, despite Obama's visit. The Weekly Standard.

the novice...

...The Telegraph, on Barack Obama is a novice and he knows it. Okay, it predates the presser, but I did think it was a good read.

Already, however, he is struggling, and the product he is now selling is not himself but a near-trillion-dollar economic "stimulus" package loaded with pet Democratic spending projects that has awakened slumbering Republicans in Congress and is now supported by barely a third of Americans. In between the Indiana and Florida stops, he will return to the White House for a prime-time press conference in which he will appeal directly to citizens and seek to rekindle the magic of his campaign.

Also from the Telegraph:

Mr Biden is likely to be the least powerful vice-president since Dan Quayle, the hapless deputy to President George Bush Snr, who left office in 1993.

He will not be allowed to sit in on the caucus meetings of Senate Democrats or to have an office next to the House of Representatives floor, both privileges Mr Cheney was given by congressional Republicans.

Read the full article.

with all that space in space...

...you would think this would be avoidable:

Nasa scientists are closely monitoring the skies after two satellites crashed into each other over Siberia, in what experts have said is the first collision of its kind.

The accident, which took place more than 400 miles above the earth's surface on Tuesday, has left a large cloud of debris drifting in space. Nasa officials are keeping watch to see if the wreckage could endanger other spacecraft, although they said it was unlikely that the International Space Station could be damaged.

...The craft, which weighed 560kg and 950kg respectively, apparently smashed into each other at a speed of 420 miles per minute (25,000mph)...

Hmmm, how does one explain this to the insurance company?
Guardian has the full story.

scholastically...

...the Ludlum Elementary School in Hampstead, New York, renames itself as the Barack Obama Elementary School. London Times.

Less than a month into his term. Impressive.

pardon me while i adjust my pants...

...Australian officials have caught a man who smuggled a couple of pigeons in his pants on a flight from Dubai to Melbourne. The birds were wrapped in padded envelopes and held up with a pair of tights. BBC News.

The caption accompanying this picture on the Beeb says the birds were not endangered. No word, however, on whether the pigeons were traumatized by being carried around like this.

The man was also carrying an aubergine and I have to say now that's a purple pickup line waiting to happen.

caught in passing...

...seen on the BBC website - signs that made me grin.

 

View the gallery here.

now that's the right signal...!

..Wells Fargo - one of the banks that recently received taxpayer money to the tune of $25 billion, cancels its planned junket to Las Vegas.  From the story:

The conference is a Wells Fargo tradition. Previous all-expense-paid trips have included helicopter rides, wine tasting, horseback riding in Puerto Rico and a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas for more than 1,000 of the company's top employees and guests.

Narrowly avoiding a bigger PR disaster like the lavish AIG trips post-bailout.

blimey, it's snow...

...Heavy snowfalls, and the UK are not two things I tend to say in the same sentence.

And yet, this week, here's a look at the American Midwest this island nation blanketed with the white stuff.

BBC News - with more snow predicted. ABC News. London Times.

And somehow, the weather brings not not-such-bright-behavior. A robber caught after his footprints in the snow gave him away.

eternal vigilance...

...it's a quote variously attributed to Wendell Phillips, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry - and carved at the entrance to the National Archives in Washington D.C.

Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty.

I took this picture last week and it makes me smile when I look at it. Does she embody the quote....or is she completely disinterested? 

republic day...

Update: I snipped the video. I loved it, but couldn't get it to stop playing whenever the page loaded and there are only so many trumpets I can hear in one sitting! :-)

India celebrates Republic Day on January 26; President Pratibha Patil takes the salute. BBC News has more pictures.

The presenters at these events have unfailingly had deep voices and a clipped delivery. Remember Meville D'Mellow? I've always loved the parade down Raisina Hill; I can smell the brasso and enjoy the military on full display. I think it was because I attended a semi-military boarding school...?

double take...

...of sorts.  Was wandering through the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. when this 1754 painting by Giovanni Panini caught my eye. It is the interior of the Pantheon in Rome and I was there this past November.  I leaned in, trying to spot both similarities and differences over 254 years. Here's what caught my eye. First, the painting itself. You are looking out toward the main entrance to the Pantheon (note the columns at the entrance).

 
See the statue to the left of the entrance? Centuries later, an unwary visitor (me) armed with a camera snapped a picture of this - the same statue. Perhaps it's not earth shattering, but it just seemed an interesting look at art through the eyes of both a painter and a tourist. 

in vivid color...

...seen at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.  Orazio Gentileschi's The Lute Player.

tchotchke central...

...one could pick up all sorts of things in D.C. this week. The President's face adorned (to name a few) t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, mugs, pens, calendars, keychains, bottles of water, tote bags, knit caps of all colors, badges of all kinds, pins, brooches, and commemorative books. The First Lady was featured on t-shirts at the airport. I suppose some level of commemorative gear is to be expected - but what I saw was tchotchke overload. The day after the event, a lot of souvenirs were selling at  reduced prices.

 

 

I could not shake the sensation of Obama as pitchman every time I looked at this display at National. Perhaps it was the cardboard cutout?

yeah, never mind what he said...

...just listening to Santita Jackson speaking with a reporter and speaking glowingly about her childhood friend - Michelle Obama.

Hmmmm, wonder what Ms. Jackson's reaction was when her father, Rev. Jackson was caught on a hot mike saying he'd want to cut Obama's N***s out...for 'talking down to black people'?

How quickly reporters forget.