Nothing profound about today's posting!!!
Enjoy
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Whale v. Boat
I read about this the other day when it was just a couple of pictures but now there is more information on it. Basically this 40-ton whale breached and landed on a boat in South Africa. 
This link has a TV interview with the boaters and a slideshow of pictures of the boat after it was smashed.
This link has a TV interview with the boaters and a slideshow of pictures of the boat after it was smashed.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Great World Soccer Players
OK, to go along with the end of this World Cup, which actually turned our pretty well even with the meltdowns and letdowns of Italy, France and England early on I am going to post about great past players who never played in the world cup and a few more who never won the cup. The inspiration for this post came to me in my sleep last night but I am posting about it now.
OK, here we go, I will begin with the best players to have never played in any World Cups. When one looks at Pele's list of 100 best living footballers from 2004 (which has numerous subjective faults but is a starting place) it is like a who's who of great international and club play because it is common for the greats to make it to the cup with their national sides. There are a few exceptions to this though.
At the absolute top of the list is Alfredo Di Stefano who played internationally for Argentina, Columbia and Spain but never once played in a World Cup over the course of a 23 year top-level career. These are in no particular order but Eric Cantona is a notable player to have never played in a World Cup when France twice didn't qualify in 90 and 94 while he was at his prime. George Weah of Liberia won the world player of the year in 1995 but never played in the cup. George Best who hailed from Northern Ireland is another who never made it to the cup. Another longtime Man U fixture is Ryan Giggs from Wales.
The great players who never won a world cup but played in at least one is a much longer list. This list I will place a little more value judgments on. Most of these near the top are classical players including Eusebio of Portugal and Sir Stanley Matthews of England! There are a couple of Hungarian greats who went undefeated for 4 years only to lose the '54 cup final to W. Germany to place here at or close to the top - Ferenc Puskas and Sandor Kocsis!!! There are three Frenchmen - Just Fontaine, Raymond Kopa and Michel Platini. A horde of dutch players led by Johan Cruyff and Marco Van Basten along with Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Dennis Bergkamp from over the years. A few more Englishmen - Gary Lineker and Peter Shilton who suffered against Maradona in '86 (hand of god) and '90 along with Alan Shearer of later years. Too many Spanish players to name though this new crop won today! Teofilo Cubillas of Peru, Roberto Baggio and Paolo Maldini of Italy.
There are more but there are few people anywhere who would leave any of these players off of any "best" lists when they were playing in their prime and most of these players had extensive careers and were at top form for many years, not just a meteoric rise and fall from stardom.
OK, here we go, I will begin with the best players to have never played in any World Cups. When one looks at Pele's list of 100 best living footballers from 2004 (which has numerous subjective faults but is a starting place) it is like a who's who of great international and club play because it is common for the greats to make it to the cup with their national sides. There are a few exceptions to this though.
At the absolute top of the list is Alfredo Di Stefano who played internationally for Argentina, Columbia and Spain but never once played in a World Cup over the course of a 23 year top-level career. These are in no particular order but Eric Cantona is a notable player to have never played in a World Cup when France twice didn't qualify in 90 and 94 while he was at his prime. George Weah of Liberia won the world player of the year in 1995 but never played in the cup. George Best who hailed from Northern Ireland is another who never made it to the cup. Another longtime Man U fixture is Ryan Giggs from Wales.
The great players who never won a world cup but played in at least one is a much longer list. This list I will place a little more value judgments on. Most of these near the top are classical players including Eusebio of Portugal and Sir Stanley Matthews of England! There are a couple of Hungarian greats who went undefeated for 4 years only to lose the '54 cup final to W. Germany to place here at or close to the top - Ferenc Puskas and Sandor Kocsis!!! There are three Frenchmen - Just Fontaine, Raymond Kopa and Michel Platini. A horde of dutch players led by Johan Cruyff and Marco Van Basten along with Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Dennis Bergkamp from over the years. A few more Englishmen - Gary Lineker and Peter Shilton who suffered against Maradona in '86 (hand of god) and '90 along with Alan Shearer of later years. Too many Spanish players to name though this new crop won today! Teofilo Cubillas of Peru, Roberto Baggio and Paolo Maldini of Italy.
There are more but there are few people anywhere who would leave any of these players off of any "best" lists when they were playing in their prime and most of these players had extensive careers and were at top form for many years, not just a meteoric rise and fall from stardom.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Postage Rates
OK, so some of you who read news headlines this week heard about the plan for the USPS to raise postage rates early next year. The new rate would be 44 cents for a first class stamp. Here is something everyone can attest to and each person has their own comment that begins with "I remember when the price of a stamp was..." and how you end that statement says a lot about your age and whether you ever really even use stamps for anything.
Here is a link to the history of US postage rates. I found it interesting that rates actually decreased from 1863-1885 and again between 1917-1932.
There are even more available here for people to buy and use or collect!
I remember when stamps were 29 cents (1991-1995), which is my statement though I was even more familiar with the 32 cent rate (1995-1999) because I worked in a postal substation during that period.
Here is a link to the history of US postage rates. I found it interesting that rates actually decreased from 1863-1885 and again between 1917-1932.Postage was a dime or less until 1975 and though rate increases have increased in frequency in the last decade with 7 increases since 2000 (the next one will be #8) the 70s (5) and 80s (4) also had several increases as well.
While I was looking up information for this post I found many pictures of early stamps here and they often looked more like our current US currency, with generally presidents (like the first pic on this post) on the stamps. Now just looking at the stamps I have collected and taped to my computer monitor I have cartoon (Simpsons) and comics (Superman, Flash) characters, celebrities (Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Gary Cooper), animals (ram, birds, mtn lion), state flags and even a Jury Duty stamp! One of the more famous modern stamps is the Breas Cancer Research stamp where the additional cost above the current postage rate is donated to breast cancer research.
There are even more available here for people to buy and use or collect!Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Busted Tees
OK, at the risk of feeling like an advertisement (which I have done before with thinkgeek) I wanted to share a couple of great t-shirt logos that BustedTees sells. I have a few shirts from this site and I have shared shirts from this site with many of my friends over the years as well. Enjoy these here and if you want, look at some of the fun ones on their site too!
They also have Monster Hoodies!
They also have Monster Hoodies!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Bush's Baked Beans
As with earlier this week, today's post will be about a consumer product with a "secret recipe" that is relatively famous. Bush's Baked Beans and their commercials with spokesman Jay and his dog Duke have really been fun to watch over the years. You can watch several of them here though. 
As I looked through the Bush's website I found the "Beans & Health" section and one interesting piece I found in one of their documents was that they note that research has shown that countries with "higher bean consumption was linked to lower death rates due to breast, prostate and colon cancer." I enjoyed looking around their site so you can take a peek too if you want.
As I looked through the Bush's website I found the "Beans & Health" section and one interesting piece I found in one of their documents was that they note that research has shown that countries with "higher bean consumption was linked to lower death rates due to breast, prostate and colon cancer." I enjoyed looking around their site so you can take a peek too if you want.
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