Dear (insert commenter's name),

I appreciate you taking the time to respond to the global warming issue. Please see the following page to find the scientifically endorsed and verified response to the information you provided. If you have additional and relevant information to add after reviewing it, I hope you'll return to share it with our readers here.

Thank you for your shared interest in creating solutions for global warming, and a sustainable economy where all can prosper. If you'd like additional information on why you're being directed to the link above, please visit this page.

Regards,

Odiyya

Audio

King Jammy – Darker shade of dub – Jamaican Recordings
Revolutionaries – Kunta kinte – Pressure Sounds
Prince Fatty – Curious – Mr.Bongo
Prince Fatty – The fat panther – Mr.Bongo
Bob Ormrod & Skaville Train – Good times will come again – Reggae Retro
Capital Letters – Natty skank – Greensleeves
Cocoa Tea & Buju Banton – Too young – Greensleeves
Johnny Osbourne & the Sensations – Fish mouth – Trojan
Alton Ellis – I'll be waiting - Trojan
Orchestra la Pailotte – Kadia Blues – Universal
Faramaz Payvar & Ensemble – Dastgah chahargah – Universal
Hugh Masekela – Afro beat blues – BBE
North Sea Radio Orchestra - Guitar Miniature no. 2 - OOF! Records
Amp - There She Goes - RROOPP -
Mental Zilch King - Quantazelle - Dust Science Recordings
Aril Brikha - Ex Machina - Peacefrog
Metamatics - Free Robot with John Foxx - Hydrogen Jukebox Records
Fridge - The Sun - Text Records
The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy! - Vagrant
Adventure Club -The Train - Re-action Records
Buffalo Tom - Bad Phone Call - New West Records
Red Go Green Stop - R.E. - Red Go Green Stop
The Beat - Save it for Later - Warner Platinum
Jack Penate - Torn on the Platform
Future of the Left - adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood - Pure
MIT - Good Book -
Dog Day - Oh Dead Life - Tomlab

I've received a couple comments in the past day about me being the only person writing here, and how you'd like to hear from more than just one guy (don't worry: no insult taken); Funny this should come up now, as it's almost the same conversation we had around the office today.

I've been really enjoying this blog and your comments, but I think it's time to introduce a few of my partners here to you. As I said earlier, I'm the director of the team that is responsible for the aspects of the website that involve community; but i'm also partners with a small group of folks who, with me, deliver the whole website. We work together to design and prioritize the features that create your experiences online. Our jobs overlap in many ways, but we have fields of expertise. Todd, for instance, handles your ratings and the ways our site recommends movies. Meghan and Paul run a range of elements, from the Queue to the Home Page to the selling of "previously viewed" DVDs to just making sure that the pages you see are customized for you. Vikram recently joined to revitalize all the customer service elements. And Steve is concentrated on Instant Viewing in all its forms. We all work together and with teams of engineers and designers and marketing folks... but we have one job, and that is to listen to customers and make the website as good as we can. (Re-reading that just now, it does smack of some kind of Pollyanna marketing-speak, but i'm helpless here -- it is precisely what we are directed to do for our jobs -- to listen carefully to you. It doesn't mean we always do what you say; there are, after all, almost 7 million of you. But we are always paying attention. No bull.)

My voice has dominated this blog (and probably will continue to); Outside of my job at Netflix, i'm a writer and blogger and I personally enjoy these community-type experiences. My associates--experts in their fields--are not really bloggers, but happy to participate to the degree they can. Anyway, I wanted to introduce them to you, and invite them to post here from time to time. They've been reading your comments as well, and beginning next week you'll start seeing posts from them, to address your questions and comments and keep you informed about all our webwork. So stay tuned. The Netflix Community is about to get a little bit bigger.

It is estimated that the mountain pine beetle has destroyed 40% of British Columbia's lodgepole pine since 1993. University researchers have now found evidence that the beetle is adapting to spruce as well.

Researchers at the University of Northern B.C. in Prince George say the pine beetle, which has destroyed about 40 per cent of the province's lodgepole pine since 1993, is now killing spruce trees as well.

"There were rumours before that pine beetles were not only killing spruce but successfully reproducing in spruce, and we have now observed that in Prince George and we have been trying to document what's going on," Staffan Lindgren, a professor of ecosystem science at UNBC, said yesterday.

Lodgepole pine is the most common timber in forest rich BC, covering 14 million hectares of land. Spruce is right behind and covers 13 million hectares. With that in mind, the threat posed by the mountain pine beetle is arguably the most visible and significant consequence of global warming yet seen on the North American continent.

In short, welcome to global warming induced evolution.

Historically, pine beetle populations are kept in check by winter temperatures that drop to -40°C for several days. But since 1993, warmer winters have meant that the beetle has been left untouched by prolonged cold periods and their numbers are skyrocketing accordingly. With greater numbers of beetles comes greater opportunity to take advantage of new evolutionary niches.

One might expect genetic variability within the pine beetle to allow rare individuals to thrive on spruce rather than pine, but they would have been few and far between and would be unlikely to form new breeding populations even if they survived the winter freeze. That changes when the natural weather cycle no longer keeps their numbers in check. What was once an insignificant genetic mutation now threatens our forests with the seeds of a whole new catastrophe.

From the disappearance of the bees that pollinate our crops, to the decimation of our forests, nature is issuing ever more severe warnings that the course our society is on is not in tune with our long term survival. It's time to stop pretending we're both deaf to the message and dumb towards action and begin changing the way we interact with the planet - for our own sake.

The sliders should be back to normal for all browsers.

I've been fascinated this week by the identification of an ancient Egyptian mummy as being that of Queen Hatshepsut, a powerful pharaoh -- the most powerful Egyptian queen -- who ruled in the 15th century B.C. She apparently was known for dressing like a man and wearing a false beard. Did they call it cross-dressing back then? I want my mummy!

Anyway, this mummy that was discovered back in 1903 was removed from its site in the Valley of the Kings two months ago and taken to Cairo for examination, at which time it was discovered that the mummy was missing a tooth--leaving a space that matches a tooth known to be from the queen.

So, besides being dentally challenged, what do we know about Hatshepsut? Interestingly, she was obese and had diabetes and, possibly, liver cancer. Whoa here. Didn't all Egyptian queens look like Liz Taylor in her Cleopatra gear?

Well, probably not. A little research into the dietary habits of ancient Egyptians shows that only the rich were able to have meat, and had it at every meal. Dairy products were also available for the wealthy. But the ancient Egyptians were major fans of bread--plain bread and sourdough bread. They had quite the sweet tooth, and used copious amounts of honey and dates to sweeten their breads and make cakes, particularly the wealthy. Beer was the beverage of choice; the wealthy could generally afford wine as well.

So Old Hatsy was a bread-eating, beer-guzzling rich lady with a weight issue. Or was it revered back this, a great weight a sign of wealth and power? Ironic considering too often today it's found among the least wealthy and least powerful.

To quote King Solomon, I guess there's really nothing new under the sun.

Thanks to PJ of the excellent blog The Divine Low Carb for the idea. After I posted yesterday about the new Diet Plate being touted by the low-cal community, she wondered what a low-carb plate might look like.

Well that, of course, sent me into gales of laughter and a whole new project to test my Quark XPress and Photoshop skills.

So here's the result of my Low-Carb Plate project. Think this looks about right?

I'm still not done writing about our trip, but I do have some pictures to share finally...

Four decades after it was declared endangered, the bald eagle has been removed from the US critical list.

Population levels bottomed out in 1967 when only 400 breeding pairs remained in the lower 48 states. Today, that number tops 10,000, in no small part thanks to Canada. Over the decades Canada has supplied more eagles to the US efforts than can easily be counted, and with them helped ensure that the aggressive conservation policies put in place were bolstered by a growing and healthy eagle population.

Congratulations to the community of Cumbria, UK! They have emerged as the early front runner to host the the long-term disposal of 500,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste.

However, communities that have fallen behind the early favorite need not fear. The British government is still "eager for other communities to compete" with Cumbria's nation leading bid, and will be throwing in £300,000 in annual "community benefit packages" for the eventual winner.

Project costs are estimated at £10bn at 2003 prices. As a side note, is using 4 year old pricing working well for anyone at home?

Last week, a report commissioned by the Conservative government advised them that a carbon tax of up to $50 would cause no harm to the economy. A new report now follows that up stating that they need to quickly and clearly communicate a pricing schedule for carbon or risk serious economic consequences.

Despite their obsessive-compulsive habit of blaming 2 year old Liberal policy for Canada's inaction on climate change, Environment Minister John Baird and the Conservative government are now firmly in the drivers seat of climate change policy. They can 1) institute effective policy now and succeed, 2) do it later and cause economic harm, or 3) do nothing and set Canada on a long term course of failure both economically and environmentally.

In short, they are going to have to demonstrate leadership on this issue instead of pointing fingers towards the past. It will be interesting to see how they do.

Daily cartoon for the Dutch Nu.nl news website, about a survey which concluded that about half of the world population owns a mobile telephone.

In the cartoon the African native irritatedly calls her husband to ask how much longer it will take him to bring back his prey, because her bouillon is already boiling.

According to the Archives of Internal Medicine, people have problems with portion sizes, and all that's needed is a bit of guidance.

Enter the Diet Plate, available in sizes for women, men and kids. There's even a Diet Bowl.

The Diet Plate folks claim it is "probably the truest product to ever come to market to help in combating and preventing obesity," which sounds like quite the hype. The plates are made in England by Royal Stafford Tableware and come with an eight-week weight management plan plus online support. The plate for women, they say, will allow you to eat your regular foods and lose 1-4 pounds a week for women who have fewer than 60 lbs to lose. If you need to lose more than 60 lbs, I'd imagine the rate of weight loss is greater.

It's an interesting idea, actually, once you get around the hype. Similar in idea to the fake foods you can buy to show you what a real portion should look like. If you're like me and have been known to "sneak" an extra bite or two of something, particularly something bad for you, or who can "eyeball" a one-cup measurement and really get something like three cups, it's an interesting idea.

But the written recommendations are the same old-same old:
Breakfast: 2 pieces of fruit and bowl of any cereal using The Diet Plate Calorie Controlled Breakfast Bowl, or 2 pieces of fruit, boiled egg and 1 slice of wholemeal toast.

Lunch (Female & Child): Choose any 300 - 400 calorie option. A small fun size banana or two small portions of fruit (not a kilo of grapes!) Drink water, tea, coffee or calorie free soda.

Dinner: Your own preference but served on The Diet Plate!

Aim to drink 8 glasses of water a day and include 400ml - 1/2 a pint of skimmed milk in your diet. Use a low calorie vegetable soup as a tummy filler for those hungry moments. Cut bread down to only two slices a day maximum. So if you’re having a sandwich at lunch this is your allowance.

Eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables everyday.

So the Diet Plate is basically a gimmick to get you to follow a "balanced," very low calorie diet. Although, to give them credit, they recommend you avoid "puddings, sweets and sugary foods."

Aw, and I was just wondering how big the portion size for Krispy Kreme donuts was.

I really shouldn't say this, and I may regret it, but YES YES, we are building some ways for you to (a) see people who are the most similar to you, and (b) ways for you to save people once you've found them, no matter how you've found them. I won't go into the details here, or the precise timeline, but its a big priority for our team and I expect will be available in the near term (however you chose to interpret that).

As I've mentioned here before, expect that the community features are going to be moving and growing continually for some time. This means cool new features and pages, and also the unfortunate side-effect of short bursts of instability and downtime (not for the Netflix site in general, but potentially for some of these new features). We'll keep the bad parts to a minimum, but, you know, I'd like to be candid here. So keep those cards and letters coming, we ARE listening (we've actually always been listening too, but it's a lot more obvious these days, no?) Thanks for the attention. Now go watch some movies.

PS: We're LOVING your avatars.

I don't really consider what I do 'baseball card punditry', as I'm really just a collector with a lot on his mind. I have noticed, however, that a number of people come to The Baseball Card Blog on a search for information on the sordid Upper Deck-loves-Topps, Topps-loves-Eisner, Joanie-loves-Chachi affair that has tortured our hobby for the past few months. Therefore, here's a list of every post on The Blog where any of it is mentioned.

These date back almost a year, starting with my post last summer 'Six Steps to Save the Hobby'. That post was written in July 2006 with a fantasy world in mind, though now it seems at least part of it is coming true. I've also included links about and my reviews of 2007 Topps and Upper Deck, for context.

Six Steps to Save the Hobby
New Topps Baseball
The Trouble with Topps
2007 Topps: Card Critic Weighes In
All Your Bazooka Are Belong to Eisner
Card Critic: 2007 Upper Deck Series 1
Interview with The Card's Michael O'Keeffe
Crain's NY Business article

This was my dream last night, I found the red light, then I woke up to cats screwing.....Damn Cats

Lately I've been quite busy with preparations for the imminent release of the Seamour Sheep and Marty Mole designer vinyl figures. Here's a selection of artwork for that purpose.

Illustration for a warning card that is shipped along with the Seamour toybox.

3D visualisation of a future special USB-powered lamp edition of Seamour Sheep.

Instructive illustration how to switch on the Seamour lamp.

So, filmmaking rabble-rouser Michael Moore is out on the interview circuit, talking about his new healthcare system expose, "Sicko." And while he's at it, he's sharing diet tips to share the wisdom he's learned in recently losing 30 pounds.

You have to exercise about 40 minutes a day, he says. You have to get lots of sleep. You have to eat lots of fiber. You have to not "diet" per se, but eat "heavy foods" that fill you up on fewer calories.

Wow.

So did Mr Moore lose the weight doing these things? Yes--that, plus a $3,800-per-week stay at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa, complete with a personal trainer. And we know what that means: super-low fat, to the tune of 10% of calories per day.

Wow indeed. Talk about doing it the hard way! (Although at least he did it, which is more than I can say for my wide and happy butt these days.)

I sit here this morning, typing and drinking a Diet Coke. Yes, I know. Horror of horrors. I'm a soda junkie. Not only am I a soda junkie, but I hated the Coke with Splenda, which I thought had a strange citrus-y taste, and am addicted to plain old Diet Coke with--eek--aspartame.

I've studiously avoided all the proclamations about the poisonous effects of aspartame, being old enough to remember the huge public outcry against the carcinogenic effects of saccharine in the 1970s. Which makes me old indeed, but that's another story for another day.

So now here's this new study from Environmental Health Perspectives, where the group of Italian researchers who did the initial damning study of aspartame--irritated that the FDA and European food regulatory agencies say aspartame is safe regardless of how much cancer their little aspartame-fed rats developed--have repeated their study. Results confirm an increase in lymphoma and breast cancer among rats fed a daily aspartame ration equivalent to average human ingestion.

Jeez Louise.

So, what's a girl to do? Well, right now, this girl has a meeting to go to. But I do think I'm gonna have to find a new soda to drink. What do you folks drink? (And if you say "water is all you need," well poo to you. I need SODA!)

Nice little job that came along: a 45 rpm record sleeve for Rotterdam's garage rockers the Quotes, with a bit of Doug Stanhope stand-up comedy on the flip side. Strange combo, indeed... These are the perks of being an illustrator as far as I'm concerned.

We are sending out this email today to folks who review movies. If you've already uploaded a photo, great. If you haven't, this is your wake up call. We're hoping to totally wipe out all those (random) automatic cinematic avatars we give you, and start seeing lots of personal icons out there. (Remember: You can change yours whenever you want.)

Don't you think it will make the site much cooler? Spread the word.

POST SCRIPT: If y'all have questions about avatars, explore the other posts here about avatars.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Swapping in some new code. (Don't get all excited, just some internal geeky stuff to streamline). Your Friends should already be back, or back shortly.

Being from the UK, Bob and Ray were completely unfamiliar to me, despite their long and successful comedy career. I stumbled across this Bob and Ray sketch on YouTube, and it did make me laugh, because deadpan comedy like this generally does. Enjoy! (It's quite educational too!)

Note: the video goes black at the end of the sketch, and I've checked, there's nothing else to see in the remaining few minutes

Related Link: (if you're in the vicinity of our nation's capital, Washington DC) The Smithsonian National Zoological Park

Here's a smashing tourist's guide to Komodo National Park by Kanis Dursin for The Jakarta Post. It covers way more than just the grisliest endangered animals of the park that we're most familiar with.

Welcome to Komodo National Park in West Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara province.

You would be forgiven to think the 1,817 square kilometer park in the heart of Wallacea has nothing more but the Komodo dragon (varanus komodoensis) to offer.
[...]
The truth is, while the unique dragon remains its main draw, the national park, established in 1980, is pregnant with fascinating natural attractions -- and watching roaring flying foxes is just one of them.

Next time you come to Komodo National Park make sure you tell your guide to drop by a mangrove islet off Rinca village so you can see thousands of flying foxes migrating in droves.

I've always been one to put stock in conspiracy theories, no matter how vast and improbable. All I need is a little outside encouragement to one of my hare-brained schemes and I'm off. That's why writing this post was the next logical step after receiving the following email this afternoon from Anthony in Houston, Texas:

"I currently live in Houston but am originally from San Diego, therefore a Padres fan. My son's newfound interest in baseball cards has us buying a pack or two (Topps or Upper Deck) every few weeks. I don't know how many packs it has been by now, maybe 20, but I cannot get a Peavy or Hoffman or any other Padre of relevance for the life of me! We have at least 3 team cards and recently got 1 Marcus Giles and Josh Bard. In the meanwhile we must have collected 4 Griffey Jr's! Of the last 30, only 3 were from teams west of the Mississippi.

This has me wondering: are cards sold in a regionalized fashion or not? I am thinking of having someone ship me some cards from California just to see if there is a difference."

My response? Funny you should ask... I'm in the boat (whether it's a raft or a cruise ship, I'm not sure) that believes card companies heavy up distribution of the local teams when they know where the boxes are going to be sold. You know, now that I see those words in print, it doesn't really make sense that Topps or Upper Deck would go to such lengths...does it?

I mean, there has to be another reason why I've opened more than my fair share of this year's Topps (Series 1 & 2) and have pulled two Jeter stunt cards but no Daisuke Matsuzaka rookies, right? It can't possibly be because I live in New York, surrounded by Mets and Yankees fans who don't want to be reminded of the Red Sox, can it?

Here's a couple of videos of Kintana, the Aye-Aye baby from Bristol Zoo. Cute? You be the judge...

I'm with y'all. I watch a lot of movies, and I love the Friends features, but I'll admit that there are titles i watch that i'm -- how you say -- less than thrilled to announce are in my Queue. At Netflix we try to have this deep honesty policy: we generally say whatever we're thinking to whoever needs to hear it. And this pervasive attitude has crept into Friends, such that the thinking was "if you're REALLY friends, then you should be okay showing them what you're really watching." But you (and I) know this is lousy. I'm happy to reveal pretty much anything about myself, but there is a level of scrutiny that makes even an open guy like me pretty uncomfortable. Once in awhile you just need to hide a movie from your friends, or parents...

Savvy insiders will know that there is a workaround: you can always create a sub-account (a second Queue) that has your embarrassing, raunchy, edgy, private titles. You wouldn't make this profile public, it wouldn't write reviews (not under your name, at least), and it wouldn't have Friends. Honestly, this isn't a bad solution. But it takes more work on your part than is ideal.

We're considering the best way to allow certain titles to be hidden. You guys are pretty sharp, and probably would be happy with a checkbox somewhere that says "hide this movie from my Friends" or the like. But we must think of the others, the folks who find every additional option on screen a distraction, or worse, confusing. So where would you say is the best place to put such a checkbox option. The Queue is out. It's not worth the complexity of another column for the one title you want to hide once every few months. It could be in the Friends area, but where? I'm afraid if we put in in a column along with Movies You've Rated, no one will ever find it. So if you want to help get this feature implemented, i'd like some good thinking about the best way to implement. Ideas?

A key tenet of the environmental movement is something called the precautionary principle, an inherently conservative principle that says if a course of action could result in widespread or irreparable harm, we should act immediately to avoid it rather than wait for 100% scientific certainty on the issue. Put in the context of global warming it goes something like this.....



Thanks to Debra for the lead.

Ever since I got back from the trip home, something indefinable has been nagging at me. I'm willing to admit that New Zealand isn't home: there's something very unique about Britain that isn't readily quantifiable but is somehow comforting. I suppose that's true of everyone's home country. That's as much thought as I'd really invested in things since I returned to NZ.Then, on Friday, I think I

Nice night we're having, perfect for some pack-opening live blogging. It's 9.02 in the pm where I am, and I have a short stack of six-card packs from a Kmart big box of Topps Series 2 I purchased earlier today. Let's get right down to it.

Pack 1
First, before we get started, I want to say a little thing about box and pack iconography. I don't know when it stopped, but boxes used to have images of lots of cards from the set plastered on them. Take 1984 Topps. A huge picture of Steve Carlton on the box top with other guys like Jim Rice around the sides. For 2007 Topps has David Wright flashing his gigantic teeth and eyebrows wrapped up in an American flag on its boxes and packs of Topps Opening Day. For the flagship set it's Ryan Howard for Series 1 and David Ortiz for Series 2. I'm not complaining; those two guys are great but...wait a minute--I am complaining. I need there to be cards on the sides of the boxes so that I know going in what I'm getting myself into. Right?

So anyway...can't get Pack 1's wrapper open...stupid foil...foiled too tight...these cards are gonna fly all over the room when I get it open like a pack of M&M's...first card is...

Zack Segovia, Phillies rookie. Wow, this guy looks like he's at least thirty, kind of like Greg Oden...Also, he went 16 and 6 in 2006 in minor league ball. Here's another complaint, quickly: because Topps has big block letters announcing rookie status, there's no room for minor league stats on the back. I want to know where this guy's been.

Adam Dunn, Reds. Good to see Dunn was given a 2nd Tier number (#520).

Orlando Cabrera, Angels. If you haven't seen any of the Topps Series 2, a) you're not a collector of new cards and b) there are a few things that just don't make sense. The first thing is that there are many true error cards throughout the set. So many, in fact, that Topps had plenty of chances to correct a card that was actually screwed up instead of promoting a card that was screwed up on purpose. One of things that doesn't make sense are the team names. One such team is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (nee California). They are listed as simply 'Angels.' It's backwards from how the Rockies are listed in the 2007 Fleer set (every team is listed by their nickname, whereas the Rockies are listed as 'Colorado Rockies'...it's like they're fucking with us just because they can)

Mickey Mantle Home Run #303 I hate this insert set. They should've done it by showing the Mick getting progressively more decrepit. Cards 1 through 100 could've been him in great shape, holding up a bottle of champagne. Cards 101 through 200 could be him smacking a home run, cards 201 through 300 would be him clutching his knees, 301 through 400 would be him drinking and glazed over, 401 through 499 him yelling at someone behind the scenes at a card show, card #500 at the Hall of Fame, and 501 through 565 gazing stoically into the distant. That seems more like a set I'd collect.

Chad Cordero, Nationals. Chad's got a nice clean signature.

Sean Casey, Tigers. I've always liked Casey. He's had a pretty good career, toiling in somewhat obscurity. If he'd had his peak years in a New York or Boston uniform, he'd be known by a lot more people.

Four good players, a Hall of Famer and a rookie.


Pack 2
Hector Gimenez, Astros rookie. Gotta love those rookies who've already had surgery.

Norris Hopper, Reds. Norris is my new favorite player. He's a true rookie; this is his rookie card. Plus, how great is this, they have his minor league stats--all nine years.

Manny Acta, Nationals manager. I thought Frank Robinson was the Nationals manager. Apparently not.

DiMaggio's Streak: Game 32 Here's another useless insert set. Again, this would've been great if it had been 56 cards of Joe counting his money.

Randy Winn, Giants. Can anybody tell me what Randy's first name is? Because I can't for the life of me read it in his signature.

Jose Bautista, Pirates. Jose's got his arm cocked at an angle that looks entirely unnatural.

One good player, one immortal Hall of Famer reduced to a boring insert, a rookie and my new favorite player, Crash Davis--sorry, Norris Hopper.


Pack 3
Brandon Morrow, Mariners rookie. Morrow's glove has a giant Nike swoosh on it.

Doug Slaten, Diamondbacks rookie. It's good to see that even career relievers get rookie cards in new sets. Used to be that you had to wait for the all-encompassing Bowman set for rookies of guys who may become the next Scott Linebrink or the next Jeff Nelson.

Angels team card. They look they're all in a boat together.

Ken Griffey, Jr., Reds. To quote Matthew McConaghey in Dazed and Confused, Alright, alright! Now we're talkin'! Big number 4-5-0. Good to see Topps is back in the business of Hero Worship.

Hit Parade: Gary Sheffield, Tigers. Not a bad looking insert, but the rainbow refractor shit is kind of annoying...and yet oddly soothing when you tilt it back and forth.

Tim Hudson, Braves. What's worse: the photo of Hudson's back or the fact that Hudson's win/loss has got progressively more mediocre over the years?

Two rookies, a team card, two great players and an insert of a lunatic. The best pack of the three, without a doubt.

...Two more packs to go...


Pack 4
Gavin Floyd, White Sox. Lots of photos in this set look like they were taken at a GlamorShots down at the mall. Too bad Floyd didn't opt for the fake bookcase, or even the forest; the charcoal doesn't work.

Brian Lawrence, Rockies. I know that on the back there's a quote that says Brian doesn't accept mediocrity, but damn that's a mediocre photo, the highlight of a boring-ass card.

Juan Encarnacion, Cardinals. I like that on the back Juan's stats are spaced real far apart because it's obvious Topps didn't have a block of text to include. He's been in the league for eleven years and they have the guy's stats presented like Phil Niekro.

Jason Bay, Pirates. Why is Bay checklisted at #411? He should at least be a 3rd tier number, like 445 or something. So this brings up a question: should there be such a thing as a 4th tier number? And if so, which numbers would be designated 4th tier?

Generation NOW: Ryan Zimmerman. What is with Topps and their inexplicable love of never-ending insert sets of cards that all look the same? I don't know if a company could be any lazier.

Checklist 2 of 3. I knew I wouldn't be able to go five packs without getting a checklist. They should've made checklists harder to find, like two or three a box. Then it would be more fun to put together a set, and make checklists more valuable to collectors.

Brett Myers, Phillies. How appropriate. Topps mentions Myers was an amateur boxer when he was a young teenager.

No rookies, one checklist, one good young player, an insert of another good young player and a lunatic Phillie.


Pack 5
Hideki Okajima, Red Sox rookie. Yeah, Okajima! Awesome.

Alex Rios, Blue Jays. Topps must've hired away all of Donruss' old baseball copywriters when they lost their baseball license. "For a stretch in early 2006, Alex was leading the league in hitting. In fact, he was batting .363 as late as June 3, and he made the AL All-Star Team. he later was sidelined by a staph infection, however." Fun.

Bud Black, Padres manager. Good old Bud Black, but where's the stache?

Mickey Mantle Home Run History #383. God, when will it end?

Opening Day: Mariners vs. A's. Jeez, another bad insert set. Topps is really hitting on all cylinders this year, huh?

Mike Sweeney, Royals. Like Sean Casey, I've always wanted to see this guy end up on the Red Sox. Even if he is always injured.

One awesome Red Sox rookie superstar middle reliever, one Hall of Famer on a dumb insert, two teams on one dumb insert, a star stuck on a perennially awful team, and Bud Black, one half of Black and Decker.


One hour, thirty-seven minutes. Five packs. Thirty cards. Four hundred eighty little colored boxes, five denoted rookies, nine stars, two managers, one team card, six inserts, one checklist, six commons and one brilliant card of immortal, career minor leaguer Norris Hopper.

Nice haul.

Yahoo has awarded a top prize of $250,000 to the city of Hastings, Nebraska for being America's greenest city. The award was announced today as Hastings is recognized for winning Yahoo's Be a Better Planet - Greenest City in America contest. The money will go towards funding green projects within the municipality.

The month long Be a Better Planet campaign sought to empower citizens to make key changes to their lives to help fight global warming. Every time a resident of an American municipality signed up, points were given to their home town. The town with the most points was the winner.

In addition to the $250,000 grand prize, Yahoo is also sending thousands of compact fluorescent light bulbs to each of the top five cites. The list of top green cities is:

1. Hastings, Nebraska
2. Pelzer, South Carolina
3. San Carlos, California
4. Mill Valley, California
5. Topeka, Kansas
6. Dover, Delaware
7. Spring, Texas
8. Lawrence, Kansas
9. Walnut Creek, California
10. Fairfax, Virginia

The official recognition of Hastings happens tonight at a Yahoo-hosted Nebraska-style BBQ and celebration at 6:00pm at Hastings' Chautauqua Park. Residents are invited to join Mayor Matt Rossen and Lieutenant Governor Rick Sheehy, and other local and state officials at the public event.

Congratulations to all of the contest participants!

So, what's your view on supplements?

I get spam e-mails occasionally from Prevention, king of the low-fat health magazines, and am always seduced a bit by their professionalism. Being in publishing myself, I've always found their books -- expensive books, by the way -- very attractive and fun to look through.

Today's e-mail blast, in large blue and green type: "Want to Lose 20-60 Pounds or More? You need help from the world's most effective "weight loss wonders"! You'll find them all in your free-preview copy of The Natural Fat-Loss Pharmacy!"

It's all about supplements. Dietary supplements -- I think today's buzzword is "nutraceuticals" -- you can take to "speed up the fat-burning process." Supplements that cost so much you practically need a "supplemental income," so to speak, to pay for them.

The late great Dr. Atkins got into dietary supplements as well--particularly his own brand of them--and I always wondered if they really made any difference or if it was just a clever money-making scheme. I note that Atkins Nutritionals stopped making them once the Atkins craze cooled off.

One of my favorite low-carb books is Jonny Bowden's Living the Low Carb Life, a most rational exploration of all the major low-carb or controlled carb eating plans.

He also highly advocates a number of supplements. Once, just to see what it would involve, I made a list of the recommended supplements and looked them up on the Vitacost website, and it totaled well over $100 for a month's worth of these "beneficial" food supplements. The list contained: GLA, Alpha Lipoic Acid, GTF Chromium, a B-Complex, a separate B5 supplement, Omega 3, L-Carnitine, 5-HTP, Magnesium, Green Tea Extract and L-Glutamine. I ended up buying a bottle of Centrum for $10 and leaving it at that except for a milk thistle/dandelion root combo for liver health that I started taking after having slightly elevated liver enzymes turn up on blood tests for a couple of years running.

But I wonder..... What do you take besides a multivitamin? And what does it do for you?

Last week I did this coverillustration for a nrc.next article about helpdesks and customers and how to improve their relation.
I felt the deep urge to draw an angry person. RAAAH!

A recent issue of Newsweek said it all: "The Dieter's Dilemma: People Will Try Almost Anything to Lose Weight. Really."

It was a lighthearted look at some of the currently fashionable fad diets--and, believe it or not, Atkins and Low-Carb didn't make the list, which means some small inroad into acceptability, I guess.

So, since I'm lollygagging around the last few months, are there any of these to capture my interest and get me back on track?

The Astrology Diet. In which your diet and exercise type are dictated by your astrological sign. I'm a Taurus, so, according to diet developers Ellen Barrett (a trainer) and Barrie Dolnick (an astrologer), I find great pleasure in eating so a restrictive diet will not work with me, and I thrive on "gentle but thorough" workouts, preferably at home. Yeah, well, okay.

The Blood Type Diet. Peter D'Amato's theory that what you eat should be dictated by your blood type. The popularity, Newsweek surmises, is that it makes people think it's more personalized. Which is all fine and good, I say, until you realize that 72% of Americans and Europeans have either O+ or A+ blood types, so how personalized can it be, really?

Single Food Diets are making a comeback. Grapefruit diet, cabbage soup diet, pineapple diet, popcorn diet. Been there, done that.

Detox Diets, popular these days, theorize that cleansing out your system is good for you and good for your weight. But, really. "Cleansing with Colonics," called for by diets like 21 Pounds in 21 Days, means, quite simply, enemas. Let 'em stick that diet where the sun don't shine.

The Maple-Syrup Diet, made famous by Beyonce, who used it to trim down for "Dreamgirls." Dieters drink 2 Tbsp maple syrup, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, a pinch of cayenne pepper and a cup of water, several times a day. Uh, no.

Remember? I'm Taurus. I find great pleasure in eating.

It was a hell of a hike, but I completed ~20 miles of hiking to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. That was the scariest and most exhilarating thing I have ever done. Pictures coming soon...

Audio

Gitanjali – Soleymani dub – cdr
Miklataklitim – title unknown – Something on the Road cdr
Valet – Blood is clean – Kranky
Strategy – Future rock – Kranky
Stars of the Lid – That finger on your temple is the barrel of my raygun – Kranky
Boris with Michio Kurihara – Rainbow - Drag City Records cdr
Kammenflimmer Kollektief – Live at the Cactus Tree Hotel – Staubgold
Nico-Teen – Quiet noise - Something on the Road
Lchns – Sighns – Kranky
Electralane – Cut and run – Too Pure
Islaja – Pysahtyneet planeetat – Fonal
Kemialliset Ystavat – Himmeli kutsuu minur – Fonal
Scan One - Atlas - Combat Recordings
cylob - rock the trojan fader - http://www.cylob.com/
Instituto - Beatbox Samba - from Maga Bo - Confusion of Tongues
Clause Four - Blue on Blue (Version) - DC Recordings
The Bug - Jah War ft. Flowdan (Loefah Remix) - Ninja Tunes
Alpha and Omega - This is my prayer (Manwel T remix)
Max Barker - Preacher Creature -
Sun City Girls - Introduction (By Cantinflas) - Sublime Frequencies
Mabulu - AIDS - Riverboat - TUG
The Maytals - My Daily Food - Trojan
Beruit - Elephant Gun - 4AD
S.w.f - crispy -
Dirk Darmstaedtar - We Beat the Drum - Tapete
John Doe - The Golden State - Yep Roc
The Mules - Polly-O - Kartel

Well, we're back online (fingers crossed) and for your patience, we offer a few small surprises for everyone.

1. You can now add movies to any of your custom lists directly from the movie page. Look for the "+Add to custom list" link in the left column on every movie page. It's not perfect, but it's at least a start. We'll refine this flow as we go forward.

(I believe this screen grab was from "The Family Stone")

2. We added a link to this blog directly from the Netflix site -- it's in the top navigation bar on the Friends pages. Up until now, the only way to really know about this blog was from Hacking Netflix. But you guys helped us find our voice and now we feel ready to open the doors to everyone else. (And probably if you're reading this now, you already found that magical portal to here.)
3. We've improved (but not totally fixed) the re-ordering of movies in your custom list. If you swap numbers between items, and save the list, it will hold the new order. (But it is not as robust or smart as the Queue.)
4. We fixed some UI problems with the avatars; with the nicknames (you'll probably be able to see more of the characters in your nickname in more locations); with various page presentations in different browsers. This should make the visuals a little more clean.

A couple tips on your nicknames: Even with our improvements - short names look better than long ones, and you don't need to list your city or state in your nickname because in key locations, it's shown under your name, anyway. They really add a lot to your reviews. Some of you, i'll bet, are going to get quite popular from your reviews here at Netflix. Let us know how that feels.

Enjoy the fixes and features. More to come. Lots more.

POST SCRIPT: Thanks for the bug tracking notes! Most of y'all do this already, but if you hadn't --If you want to be truly helpful (as opposed to, say, grumpy...), when you mention some bug or oddity you're facing, also add your OS info and version (e.g. Mac 10.4.2, Windows Vista), your Browser (e.g. Safari 2.0.4, Firefox), and any odd circumstances that might be helpful ("...my sliders were empty, which was immediatley after I left this really long note...") We appreciate your help tracking these problems down.

Anyone who has watched any of the 100 available Antipodean soap operas will tell you that when Antipodeans wish to express delight, they will say "Ah, mate, I'm rapt!", or similar (abbreviation of 'rapturous', 'enraptured', I imagine).Until recently, I had never seen the expression written down.I cannot be the only one who thought the expression was 'wrapped'. I had visions of Aussies and Kiwis

We all have our own personal fantasy worlds. Mine is to live in a world of balanced political debate where liberal and conservative politicians bring forward different political strategies to address common social problems.

What a world that would be - the perfect balance between tough government regulations and well funded programs, with aggressive fiscal responsibility and market advocacy. The reality is that in the issue of global warming, the real world has devolved into one where the true controlling political party invests millions of dollars to convince you, the voter, of a fantasy world of their choosing - one where cheap, everlasting, and harmless fossil fuels will better our lives for eternity.

Let's be perfectly honest on this one. Metaphorically, there are precisely two people in the world who do not believe in the danger of human generated global warming - The President of the United States and the CEO of Exxon-Mobil. Every other voice chiming in with their agreement are either a paid employee of one of those two individuals - in the form of direct employees, think tanks, media outlets, editorial writers, and yes, the conservative leaders of Canada and Australia - or one of the minority of the general public that they have managed to convince with lies and misinformation. It is on this foundation that magazines like The Economist can publish the following editorial on London's climate change policy without being laughed off of the news stand.

Haringey's plan is merely the latest in a flowering of official greenery. Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, has mooted tinkering with the city's pioneering congestion charge, which already rewards drivers of electric and gas-powered cars by exempting them from the £8-a-day charge. The mayor wants to go further, cutting prices for cleaner cars and hiking them for dirty ones. If he gets his way, drivers of the biggest cars could pay £25 to drive into the city centre. Mr Livingstone's opponents in the London Assembly accuse him of being more interested in revenue-raising than road-clearing.

It is not just local government that has caught the green bug. Earlier in the month, the government wondered publicly about adding a “carbon cost” to the price of petrol by including motor fuel in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, which limits the amount of carbon dioxide certain industries can produce.

But none of these plans is obviously a good idea. Britons are already taxed twice on their cars' carbon emissions: once by a sales tax on petrol, and again by a separate tax levied on the cars themselves. And exemptions, however well-intentioned, work against the purported aim of London's congestion charge—clean vehicles take up just as much road space as dirty ones.

Nice positioning statement. But we weren't talking about gas prices and traffic congestion. We were solving the global warming problem.

Raising the cost of gas and the cost of driving polluting vehicles is actually the most conservative type of strategy available in addressing climate change. By placing a cost on the problem (too many cars burning too much fuel), you allow the public to make the right choices by purchasing consumer products that will benefit (or be less harmful) to the environment. Consumers can opt out of higher costs by choosing more cost effective and fuel efficient options while business still sells goods, consumers still have choice, and the economy canl hum along while we all take productive steps towards solving the climate crisis.

In an honest report, London's policy of making fuel hogs expensive and high mileage cars cheap would be embraced as a conservative victory in the fight against global warming. That doesn't happen because the controlling political party alluded to at this articles beginning is not liberal, nor conservative, but capitalist. And that political force has bent the foundation of both parties so far askew that both are hard pressed to address global warming or any genuine social concern.

Democratic political systems are concerned with providing the best solutions to the problems of society. A liberal approach advocates stronger government involvement and spending, while a conservative approach advocates minimum government intervention and free market principles, but both strive towards the same end - the betterment of society.

The political force of capitalism is not concerned with the end of a better society or in solving problems. By nature, it is a philosophy based on the principle of "the end justifies the means". The only end is profit, and any means are justified so long as they realize more profit. Our acceptance of that principle isn't limited to oil, it pervades all business enterprises of our society. Consequently, that 'ends justify the means' philosophy has infected our political and decision making processes so thoroughly that we are losing the ability to question it.

The root of the world's two most prominent problems, the war in Iraq and the danger of global warming, both stem from the pursuit and justification of the same ends. Namely, the continued growth of oil profits, and the continued expansion the economies that rely on burning it. In Iraq, the US justified both the use of force and a case for war that was based on outright falsehoods in order to secure greater access to the world's second largest deposit of conventional oil. In the case of global warming, the use of deception, misinformation and personal attacks on scientists are likewise justified as the means necessary to protect our economy.

As long as we accept those ends - the dominance of the oil industry in our economy, and most importantly our reliance on that same industry for our continued prosperity, genuine global warming policy will continue to be road blocked, and Iraq will not be the last oil rich nation to fall under the control of a hostile foreign power.

Change our ends and the means will inevitably follow.

I'm still not too keen on Hilary Clinton, and thankfully this isn't a political blog so I don't have to make my mind up and make any kind of endorsement yet!

But you have to admit her video sendup of the Sopranos finale is pretty funny. Of course, Bill steals the show.

He joins Hilary at a diner full of common folk--just the sort of place the Clintons probably eat every day (snort snort)--and as Bill is seated, the waitress plops down a plate of carrot sticks.

Dejected, Bill asks why he can't have onion rings, and he munches sadly on a crispy carrot stick while Hilary tells him she's looking out for him.

I feel his pain.

My first attempt at a multiple emulsion transfer. The Polaroids that frame the middle picture where all mess up attempts, this is just another proof to my theory, "No Polaroid is a bad polaroid." I know its pretty deep. Other news.

Chuck Welch a local blogger here in Lakeland, wrote an article on me. The name of his blog is Lakeland Local. I want to give a big thank you to Chuck for taking the time to give me some face time on his blog. His blog is very informative on issues and events going on in and around Lakeland. Please check it out and leave him a comment, because like all bloggers, we love comments. I hope your weekend is filled with braughtwurst and beer.

How did we survive the days before insert cards? If Classic had any say in it, we didn't. For their 1995 issue (which I have a few cards of, around here somewhere), they made each card look like an insert card, causing massive sensory overload. Seriously, has there ever been a phenomenon quite like inserts?

People went nuts for them and yet, supposedly in limited quantity, there seemed to be more inserts than regular cards produced in the mid-Nineties. I stopped caring about finding and coveting inserts after a few months for two reasons: a) they were literally everywhere, and b) most of them were glorified subset cards.

And I think that by 1995, while some collectors may have been chomping at the bit for an entire set that looked like insert cards, a few of us were generally sick of it. And frankly, a whole set that looks like inserts? And because you know that there were inserts in the insert-worship set, what did they look like? Regular, white cardboard cards?

Nature is full of lessons. This clip shows something of the strength of numbers and the power of community. The day is not far off when all of those who care about the environment will similarly realize their strength in the face of obstructionist corporations and government inaction.



Clip via An Insomniac

In announcement that was surprising for it's timing, rather than outcome, China has become the world's number one emitter of greenhouse gases. Experts believed that this would not occur until next year at the earliest, but unprecedented economic growth and their reliance on coal power has catapulted China ahead of the US far earlier than expected.

The analysis was done by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

In addition to being bad news all-round, the announcement punctuates an opinion expressed here earlier in June. Namely, that in the face of US obstructionism, it's critical for the world community to stop harping on about American involvement in international talks. The key nations are China and India. They represent the world's number one and two populations and will soon be the world's number one and number two greenhouse gas emitters. If you bring them into a productive solution now, market forces will force the US to follow in the coming decades. Dither away time on the US and the growing carbon footprint of these emerging Asian superpowers will squash international efforts underfoot.

We all know the environmental harm caused by large scale hydro-electric projects - silted rivers, destruction of salmon spawning grounds, carbon release from submerged decaying foliage. So what happens when an unauthorized dam gets plunked down in small town America? Simple. Sue the bastards.......

Every month I like to post a self-portrait of myself. Since I did not take a picture of mySELF this month, I decided to post a couple of Portraits....of me. These were taken by Van Cannon Kirby. That is a link to one of his MANY blogs. And ladies, I am single and no you can not find my phone number on this blog, but if you bring me Homemade Cookies and Milk, I might just give it to ya. Sorry, I just finished watching Stranger Than Fiction. Very good movie, It was nice to see Will Ferrell in a different role. I hope he does some more in the future.

Photoblog To Watch
Twin Lens

Sometimes I get emails from readers; collectors as obsessed as me, who hold baseball cards and the act of collecting baseball cards close to their hearts, who know that without a placing a proper value on history we are doomed.

That's why it was exciting when I opened my inbox this morning and found these great scans from Reader Dave in Vermont.

(If you look hard enough, you can pinpoint the exact moment the pursuit of baseball cards broke my heart.)






Click images to make bigger

Those of us who have eaten low-carb for any amount of time at all have eaten our share of eggs. Boiled, scrambled, fried, cooked in an omelet with just about anything, in a crustless quiche...well, you get the picture. Eggs are our friends.

So in a typical bit of stupidity, we have a story from CalorieLab that the Egg Information Service in the UK was all set to re-release this 1950s TV ad about the perfect protein of eggs when they were blocked from doing so by the "Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre," which regulates advertising standards.

The BACC was concerned that the 50-year-old ad celebrating the egg with classic comedian Tony Hancock would send unsuspecting Brits into a dangerous way of eating. BACC spokesman Kristoffer Hammer said it was not a question of whether an egg a day would cause any harm, but that it should be served with fruit juice and toast. Fruit juice and toast! Heck, might as well add a Snickers Bar as well.

Anyway, enjoy the classic ad that won't be running on TV in the UK anytime soon.

Popout

57. 1994 Leaf
Oh man, it’s been a long day. And here I am, staring down 1994 Leaf and I can’t even remember the damn thing. Nothing—and I’m scanning that old Beckett I told you about before, and yet still nothing. According to my mid-Nineties price guide, there were eight insert sets and it looks like Ken Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas dominated just about all of them. That brings up a funny point: remember when you’d scan the latest Beckett or Tuff Stuff and notice that they’d list every single insert card from a set except for one and then also note what a common from that insert set went for? I hated that. It’s obvious that they had the page space to list every card (plus I collected Fred McGriff, and more often than not he’d be the one they’d leave out).

So coming back to this Leaf set for a minute, I feel like a dunce for ranking it towards the middle of the pack (granted, the high end of the middle) and then not remembering one thing about it that may have made it special, or horrendous. So let’s try to forget this ever came up.


#56. 1993 Fleer Ultra & #55. 1994 Fleer Ultra
1991 is generally recognized as the Year of the Boom in the hobby, though perhaps a more apt name would be the Year of the Great Crescendo, as it was not so much the beginning of the present day landscape—1993 was. No, 1991 was truly the last year of the Topps Dynasty. (Yes, I know I’m on record as having said that 1989 was truly the last year of the Topps Dynasty, but generally unwritten history’s designed to be a little fuzzy, so cut me some slack). So with three important products coming on the scene in 1993 (Fleer’s Flair, Topps Finest and Upper Deck’s SP), not to mention that scallywag Score Select, it became more important than ever that the premium products already out there were strong enough to deflect the new competition.

1993 Fleer Ultra survived the influx, but not without boring us all to tears in the process. Ultra’s marbleized design ruled across all four major sports (baseball, basketball, football and hockey) in 1992, and instead of mixing it up and trying on something new, the Fleer execs pulled a Donruss on us and gave Ultra the subtlest of facelifts for ’93. Granted, the cards were good looking and the inserts somewhat desirable, so no big deal, right? Well, I would argue that precisely because they didn’t even try to raise the bar for 1993, Ultra put the onus on 1994’s product to perform in an ever-expanding marketplace. And while 1994 Ultra at least had a major design overhaul, a boatload of inserts, autographs of Daulton and Kruk and draft picks, it was no prize pig.


54. 1991 Fleer
I have been moved to tears over matters of the baseball card encrusted heart only twice: upon seeing the beautiful T206 Wagner framed, matted and on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the first time I ripped open a pack of 1991 Fleer.

From the moment my hands touched yellow cardboard, I knew that this was the worst set ever made. If all the card companies had attended the same high school, 1991 Fleer’s face would’ve been plastered all over the senior superlatives pages: ugliest, most worthless, most useless. Not even pimple-faced, greasy-haired Donruss would’ve been seen hanging out with this one.

So then why the hell is it ranked here and not at the bottom of the pile? Because. That’s why. Back in the day I would have characterized this set as Ugly with a capital ‘U’. But I’ve mellowed out, and some may even say I’ve matured just a little bit. I’ve grown to appreciate the inner beauty in ugly things, so now it’s only ugly with a regular lowercase ‘u’.

To be fair, there are positives (they’re just few and far between). Take the Pro-Visions and All Stars insert sets. Those PV’s really knocked my socks off, mostly because it was completely obvious to me that if Fleer had only made the whole regular set with kick-ass black borders, I would’ve collected this set by choice, instead of by necessity, as it was still one of the only sets I could afford.

The checklist on this set was pretty drab. Granted, Fleer had all the big names, and even a great card of Bonds and Griffey billed as ‘Second Generation Stars’, but what it had in stars it lacked in rookies. To illustrate this point, let’s briefly compare Fleer’s 1991 (meaningful) rookie class with that from 1991 Score.

1991 Score
Phil Plantier
Brian McRae
Mike Mussina
Carl Everett
Jeff Conine
Todd Van Poppel
Rondell White
Chipper Jones
Ivan Rodriguez RT
Luis Gonzalez RT
Jeff Bagwell RT
Pete Schourek RT

1991 Fleer
Phil Plantier
Luis Gonzalez
Jeff Conine
Brian McRae
Ivan Rodriguez U
Jeff Bagwell U
Pete Schourek U
Mo Vaughn U
Chuck Knoblauch U

Fleer loses this one easily, for two reasons. First, Fleer did not include cards of draft picks so therefore didn’t have rookies of Mussina, Everett, Jones, White and Van Poppel. Because they didn’t include draft picks in the 1990 set either, they had to wait on Vaughn and Knoblauch for almost two full years later; both debuted in 1991’s Update set.

Granted, both the Fleer and Score rookie crops pale when compared with Bowman. In addition to everyone named above, Bowman had perennial Blue Jay Pat Hentgen, Jim Thome, Tim Salmon, Bret Boone, Roberto Hernandez, Wil Cordero, Kenny Lofton, Javy Lopez, Ryan ‘The Forgotten Superstar’ Klesko, Eric Karros and that unforgettable hobby monster, Raul Mondesi. Bowman was all about the long-term, the rookie that would mature into the superstar. Score was all about having close to a thousand cards in the base set. And Fleer, sadly, was all about neither of the two. For Fleer to have had an impact, it needed immediate rookie sensations to carry the set (the company even acknowledged as much the next year with their ‘Rookie Sensations’ insert set).

When I approach this set today, I save my tears. Sure, I still feel bad about this set; upon close inspection it represents the idea of ‘wasted opportunity’ surprisingly well. It had the potential to contribute more than it ultimately did. But 1991 Fleer does not break my heart anymore. Today my heart is tired from much bigger things than a pile of lousy yellow cardboard.

Fighting global warming with a carbon tax would cause virtually no negative economic impact in first two years and offer an economic boost thereafter.

At $50, a carbon tax would shave about $4.8-billion from Canada's GDP in 2010, which works out to about 0.09 per cent of GDP. However by 2020, the impact would become slightly positive for the economy, working out to a 0.004 per cent increase to the GDP.

That is the result of an internal report prepared for the Conservative government, and obtained by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May through an access to information request.

The report was written by economist Mark Jaccard and analyzes the potential impacts of various climate change measures on Canada's GDP including carbon taxes ranging from $10 to $250. If you're not familiar with Mark Jaccard, you should be. He is one of the world's foremost experts specializing in energy related issues and policy. Jaccard's also been a vocal advocate for the development of a sustainable energy future for the province of BC, but although he consistently has the ear of environmental advocates, he is not an "environmentalist".

His views are those of an informed realist that recognizes the need to meet the energy needs of the developing world as well as the critical goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He's not against the use of fossil fuels, but he is adamantly in favour of creating policy and economic systems that encourage the solutions we need to drastically curb emissions.

Now with the release of Jaccard's expertly informed report, Canada's governing party have themselves in a pickle and have been resisting a scheduled appearance of Dr. Jaccard before the House of Commons environment committee - an appearance that would likely result in the Tory's own hired consultant stating that there is no reason to delay the implementation of a substantial carbon tax to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

I know this has nothing to do with anything I usually do on this blog--it's a cross-post from my New Orleans post-Katrina blog. But I thought I'd share...

Here is the trailer for the new Fox drama about post-Katrina New Orleans. It made me cry. I don't think that's the reaction they're going for and I'm sure it will be entertaining for the rest of the world and I know New Orleans needs the revenue filming this here will bring, but I don't think I'm ready for it. What do you think?

Popo

There's an interesting correlation between a couple of news stories out today.

The first is the results of three large national database studies showing that between 1971 and 2000 the death rate of men with diabetes has dropped significantly and is in line with the overall rate of decline in death rate among all Americans. The same is not true, however, of women with diabetes, whose death rate did not decline at all.

One of the researchers concluded: "The improvements seen in men suggest that the improvements in diabetes care are working on longevity as well. But the finding in women is concerning and means we may need to explore whether different approaches are needed to improve health outcomes for women with diabetes."

One answer -- one very big, systemic answer -- might be found by reading between the lines of health guidelines being given to women. Take, for example, the recent eating guidelines from the American Heart Association, which one of my favorite blogs, Junkfood Science, rips apart at the seams. Go and read author Sandy Szwarc's breakdown of the AHA recommendations.

In short, though, she points out that:

1) The AHA Guidelines state that to prevent heart disease and premature death, women should maintain or lose weight and maintain a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 with a waist circumference of 35 inches. However, when the studies to support this recommendation are examined, there are ZERO clinical studies cited to support that women who lose weight live longer or decrease their chances of cardiac disease.

2) The AHA recommends that women consume no more than one alcoholic drink daily. However, an examination of their 54 pieces of "evidence" shows that few were actually clinical trials, and most were conducted only on men. And the AHA expert committee even noted that the results "are not applicable to women."

3) The AHA says to prevent heart disease and increase longevity, women should consume ample fruits and vegetables; eat whole-grain, high-fiber foods; consume fish at least twice a week; limit saturated fat to less than 10% of calories (7% is preferred), and limit sodium to approximately 1 teaspoon of salt a day. Trans fats should make up less than 1% of calories.

To support these recommendations, the AHA cites a whopping 94 studies. However, as Sandy of Junkfood Science discovered, 36 of the studies included no women and the AHA committee noted they were not applicable to women. Another 8 studies were not applicable because they were studies of previous cardiac patients, not prevention studies related to the guidelines. Forty-eight of the studies were observational and could not point conclusively to causal relationships between diet and disease. Only one study was a clinical intervention trial.

Sandy's conclusion: "Not one observational study was able to credibly support the AHA heart healthy eating recommendations for women to prevent heart disease or premature death. The only observational study specifically looking at Healthy Eating in accordance with our government’s dietary guidelines found no benefit. And finally, the strongest evidence — an actual clinical trial of the heart healthy diet on the primary prevention of heart disease in women, that went on for more than 8 years — found it had no effect on heart disease."

So, let's go back to the first data about how women with diabetes aren't experiencing the decline in mortality enjoyed by their male counterparts and non-diabetic Americans as a whole. Is it apples and oranges? I really don't think so. Until and unless we develop a body of clinical work specifically studying the effects of diet and disease on women, we're going to lag behind on more than just pay rates.

Okay. Off the soapbox now. Jeez. I sound like a feminazi. I'm not. Really.