BillSaysThis

Thank you for your patience during this process. Providing outstanding service is our top priority at PayPal. Although we didn’t meet your expectations — or our own — in the past few days, we look forward to the opportunity to regain your faith in our service.—Meg Whitman, President and CEO eBay

So that’s it. People and businesses lose their potentially primary PayPal payment service for up to five days and the best the most powerful American businesswoman can, or will, do is apologize. Wouldn’t want to offer some kind of financial remuneration, that would impact the bottom line and imply some ongoing liability. There’s a rock solid non-starter. Kind of puts a stick in Matt’s idea, until they get much better on reliability.

Dear Reader,

Please excuse Juan from writing today’s blog entries because he contracted Yellow Fever some weird achey congestion head thing last night.

Thank you,

Epstein’s Mom

The start of a new gallery of family photos, these are older shots taken on film–some going back to the 1920s–and scanned in by the Big Guy (thanks!). The existing family gallery has more than enough in it already.

I had hoped to post the following comment to the MeFi thread but the server developed an issue and blocked me:

xmutex, patriotic Americans are cheering the US Men on against Panama in tonight’s 2006 World Cup qualifier. A goal from my boy Landon has them up 1-0 at the half and a win today means the US clinches a spot to move forward to the next round.

More: 10 minutes into the second half Donovan takes a beautiful through ball from Zavagnin, jukes the keeper and dives to push the ball off his knee through two defenders into the back of the net. Wearing the captain’s armband for the second straight game, Number 21 is taking his game to a whole new level.

Last: Beautiful second half for the Americans. Eddie Johnson, a 20 year old Dallas Burn forward playing in only his second national team game, came on in the 64th minute and proceeded to put three balls in the net (70th, 84th and 87th minutes); the first two came on passes from Carlos Bocanegro while the third was begun by a corner from Landon. Johnson scored at the end of last Saturday’s game giving him four, wow! The third was a true team effort, with three other players taking touches in the goal box. We got a sixth goal just before the end of regulation time, initially announced as an own goal against Panama though it might have been off the head or chest of Brian McBride from a free kick taken by, who else, Donovan.

So that clinches the qualifying group for the US. Last game of the round is Nov. 17 against Jamaica in Columbus. Next year we’ll be part of a final round of six teams with the three top going on to Germany 2006. The commentators were saying to expect Coach Bruce Arena to deploy an experimental, younger side next month, to give these players a look and a chance to shine. Maybe Johnson and Brian Ching starting up front with Landon roaming behind?

Interesting matchup on Saturday will be Landon’s Earthquakes against Johnson’s Burn in Dallas. If the Quakes win or the teams tie, the Quakes go on to the playoffs; if the Burn win, the Quakes stay home. Uh oh.

Judas… hung himself with his own rope

The heat caused him to lose control

Everything he wanted was just out of reach

Just think of him, that poor poor soul.

I know that you can spend days out in the sun

Work a picket, work a shovel, work a ‘hammer

Walk the line up and down, wipe the sweat away

Whatever you do remember to drink your water

There’s a shock of green over the horizon

Further away than you can get tonight

Try and sleep, try and rest before you go

That mirage will still be there at morning light

The heat makes you tired, so tired of moving

So hard to keep going, lifting your legs

Too tired to lift your head at the cry of a bird

So hot that you stumble wiping sweat from your brow

Weeks ago you sat by an ocean and the breeze

Kept you cool under a thatched roof, seated

On a bright white lounge drinking iced cold

Rum and fruit juice, no worries even over the horizon

Circumstances change, the world spins you over

That horizon comes closer, then is suddenly seen

In your rearview mirror, those deep blue and green

Waters and the tourists laying in the sand

Off in the distance now a buzzing sound, louder then

Softer, whirs and whorls shorter and longer but no rhythm

Machine sounds but no machine to be seen

Heat tempers the volume in waves of sand

There is no tablecloth on which to eat your meal

To keep your food and forks and dishes clean

Only the heat to make you sweat, no napkins to wipe

The beads away, to make you forget everything ever seen.

A lawsuit that is now (apparently) up to SCOTUS on appeal could, if the Apellate Court decision is not overturned, completely dismember the way universities and similar entities conduct fundamental research. As if we didn’t have enough things to worry about.

However, these projects unmistakably further the institutions’ legitimate business objectives, including educating and enlightening students and faculty participating in these projects.

This quote, from the appellate decision, is another example of the insidious ways our cultural fixation on money infiltrates every aspect of our society. Since when does a university have a business objective? Or is every organized endeavor, perhaps excluding only government and religion, necessarily a business endeavor? A comment to Felton’s post suggests that this mess began with a poorly thought out personnel decision but as the saying goes, beware of unintended consequences.

Stephen Bainbridge suggests that perhaps this perspective is not such a bad thing but even he, a professor of corporate law, cannot ignore the probability that such treatment will likely result in a loss to us all. Certainly universities are trying harder to benefit financially from the research done on their grounds but as every single one of them other than perhaps the amazingly endowed places like Harvard, Yale and Stanford are struggling to maintain classes, facilities and staff, I’m hardpressed to begrudge them the money.

To sum: SCOTUS should rule for Duke and even though universities are not businesses they do require money to operate; their continued existence as conductors of fundamental research benefits us all.

Like Tenacious D except funny: Corky and the Juice Pigs

Its a long way from Little Fauss and Big Halsy and Lady Sings the Blues to this 1999 film, but the connection is Sidney Furie directed all three. Really makes one wonder. Especially since this film barely seems to actually have been directed.

The Collectors is the story of a few days in New York City for AK and Ray, two big debt collectors for a New Orleans mobster who’ve tired of the gig. To say that the film makes little sense is giving Furie and writers Robert Anton and David Penotti more credit than they deserve. The only reason I watched to the end is because I was eating lunch and my hands were too dirty to pick up the remote.

The only remotely interesting thing about The Collectors is Rick Fox, ex-LA Lakers forward, who has been working over the last few years to transition into acting. You can see he has good moves but the facility with dialog and emotion is yet to come. He is pretty tall though and makes co-star Casper van Diem seem short.

not recommended in the least

As in, the Earthquakes have scored three goals in their last nine games. The only saving grace has been a defense almost as good as the offense has been bad, with four clean sheets in that run, giving the team a 1-4-4 record. Plus Dallas has been even worse so San Jose has a two point lead on them for the fourth and last Western playoff spot with the Burn needing a victory next Saturday night to leap over us.

Aside: Real Salt Lake? There’s a huge Spanish market in Utah. Or not. I’m still puzzled over Salt Lake City getting the expansion franchise over A-League standouts Seattle and Rochester.

Looking for a bit of quality entertainment? Now I used entertainment purposefully, not literature, because The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips, published in 2000, should in no way be confused with literature. A good comparison from the movies is Pulp Fiction versus Get Shorty; both are entertaining but the former reaches levels of sophistication to which the latter doesn’t even aspire.

Charlie Arglist is a small time mob lawyer in Wichita, Kansas, and we follow him through about 12 hours beginning after dinner time on Christmas Eve 1979. He’s up to something, doesn’t want his associates to know what, and expects to be gone before people start unwrapping their presents. A barely in control alcoholic, Charlie totters from one place to get a drink to another waiting for a get together. He visits bars and strip joints, takes his ex-sister-in-law’s new Mercedes after her husband pukes in the company-issued Lincoln, considers sexual opportunities. The real action starts when he gets to the meet and instead of his buddy being home, there’s blood.

Phillips has a light style, somewhat in the Elmore Leonard/Carl Hiaasen vein, though never winding the tension as those two generally do. A funny book though not much in the way of laugh out loud jokes. The territory combined with the short time span gives Phillips a fresh taste.

recommended

This book will become a movie next year that might be an even better medium for the tale. John Cusak will star as Charlie, Billy Bob Thornton will play the buddy, Connie Nielsen the woman who Cusak almost hooks up with; directing will be Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Analyze This/That) from a script by Robert Benton and Richard Russo.

In 1967 the world was expecting to get two records that would change music but only The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released. 37 years later the impact of that album is still constantly felt: I could hear reverberations in the newest U2 single while people like Jeff Lynne and Todd Rundgren made whole careers off it.

The other was Smile from the Beach Boys but under the pressure of expectations, mental illness and drugs Brian Wilson fell apart before it could be completed. Looking back from today, Smile probably ranks with or even above The Rolling Stones’ Rock And Roll Circus as the greatest music event of the rock era that never was. Although since we live in an amazingly commercial age of course both were eventually brought to market.

Wilson’s troubles since these recording sessions are legend, the beginning of the end of the Beach Boys as a force in music, and so his return from the beach in 1995 and the resumption of his recording career was seen in some circles that a path from which we turned away might still be trod. After several records of new original music and a new version of Pet Sounds, Brian took the reaction to a performance of his hit Heroes and Villains as the launching point to finally conquer the one mountain that’d always stumped him.

Beautiful Dreamer is a feature length documentary that looks at both the original years and at the current effort and its currently running on Showtime. The generally chronological narrative is cut through with interviews about Wilson and this record, done with the people who were there then (Van Dyke Parks, who wrote the lyrics, Wilson friend and Three Dog Night leader Danny Hutton, and studio musicians like Hal Blaine) but neither of the still living members of the Beach Boys–I would have been interested to get Mike Love’s perspective though Brian and the narration seemed honest about their conflicts and such–and then jumps ahead to the beginning of the effort in 2003 to reclaim a lost masterpiece.

From all the buildup I was expecting the last segment to be the London concert this past February where the entire rock opera was premeiered. Sadly all we saw were the wordless but lovely acappella overture and the closing, revamped version of Good Vibrations. Guess no one wanted to dampen sales of the CD.

Still, this is music I’ve loved from early childhood and a sad life story with which I’m well familiar so definitely 105 minutes well-spent in watching. Director David Leaf truly made an honest telling of a troubling story but leaves us positive. Is Smile the “teenage symphony to God” that Brian Wilson set out to make in 1966, does it deserve a place on the fantasy Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shelf next to Sgt. Pepper’s? From what I heard, no. Terrific music that would have changed the music scene if released in 1967, yes. Surely that parts that did come out over the next few Beach Boys albums, especially Good Vibrations, the revolutionary way Wilson used a recording studio as an artistic tool were scene changers. After all this time I have one piece of advice: Sit back and enjoy; as much as anything Beautiful Dreamer demonstrates that life’s too short to do anything else.

I cannot understand why nurses would be offended by the way Christina Aguilera is naughty in Skechers ad campaign. Not in the least. I am certainly not.

Good stuff: Frog glue

House majority leader Tom Delay got yet another slap on the wrist from the House Ethics Comittee for using federal resources to further his Texas political machinations. And, as Garret points out, this is from the same people who tried to run our last real President out of town over getting a blow job.

More than anyone else I can think of, this congressperson is responsible for the terrible partisanship in Washington and replacement of the Contract for America Republicans with the current Contract on America crew. Delay was an exterminator before he got into politics: Can someone please tell me how he’s qualified to be one of the most senior politicians in this country?

First: Just watched last Sunday’s Chelsea-Liverpool match that ended 1-0 to the host Blues. I had heard criticism of Cisse and Kirkland but my analysis is that Xabi Alonso and John Arne Riise were the main culprits. True, the oft-injured ‘keeper could have stayed a bit closer to his line in general but his positioning didn’t lead to any scores. Meanwhile the team is 11th in the table as the “real” leagues begin a two week break for national team play.

Second: What … is up with the Earthquakes lately? A healthy Ching has turned out to be far more important to the team than anyone would have guessed at the start of the year. The injury to Dwayne Derosario has deprived us of the only capable substitute on the roster. Landon is either exhausted or out of sorts–take your pick between the unsettled franchise and the possibility he will have to go play in Germany after the New Year–but for sure is not doing or creating any scoring. Only even worse play by the Burn is keeping us in a playoff spot.

Third: But will national team duty over the next seven days for Donovan, Derosario and Onstadt be the end of that? The Quakes will miss all three of them in our last home match of the season against a stronger at full strength anyway Kansas City for sure and one wonders about their condition for the season closer the following Saturday at Dallas.

Fourth: And WTF is up with this Saturday’s US v. El Salvador World Cup qualifier being shown only on pay per view? Are the 27 people willing to shell out to see it more significant to US Soccer than getting exposure on ESPN or FSW, even on tape delay?

[A letter to the Mercury News]

Gary Wallace (letters, 10/6/4) writes that John Kerry is a waffler who would let other nations dictate to America and instead would prefer the re-election of George Bush despite his faults. I would prefer a president who would tell us the truth and whose supporters and associates would also tell the truth.

Perhaps Wallace, for instance, could provide the facts behind his assertion that Kerry would defer to the UN since John Edwards last night explicitly stated that was not the case. Also last night, showing the stark contrast between our choices, Dick Cheney lied yet again on the subject of the Administration’s assertion of substantive association between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda; NBC showed the evidence of this lie in their post-debate review with video of Cheney appearing a year ago on Meet the Press and saying exactly that.

There are more examples one could include but I would settle for just this one.

Two articles in today’s Times that I happened to read consecutively make a good match:

Pension Failures Foil 6-Figure Retirements, Too

Republicans Try to Dilute Provisions in Tax Bill

What good will it do us to survive into our 70s and 80s if we have to work like dogs “bagging groceries at Publix” or flipping burgers just to pay medical bills? Of course today’s business execs should read these articles with a wary eye, understanding that once they’re gone from the stage they’ll be just as forgotten.

Later: Security surely is not the kind of crap Neocon analysis as posed by Michael Ledeen in this National Review column. [via Jim Gilliam]

LittleSteven, sadly, is still sick but after uninstalling Windows XP SP2 has reached a point where it isn’t terrible, only unstable. Tomorrow I expect her to get some serious treatment from the Big Guy.

Vivian gave the movie a moderately good write up. I laughed, after all the creative team are professionals, but overall thought it was formulaic and unoriginal. This third go-round with the American Pie gang dearly missed the pure romanticism of Chris Klein’s Oz and Mena Suvari’s Heather, the take no shit of Natasha Lyonne’s Heather and the sexuality of Shannon Elizabeth.

Director Jesse Dylan (Bob’s other son) and writer Adam Herz tried to simplify the stories and compress the missing characteristics, especially the romance, into Jason Biggs’ Jim and Alyson Hannigan’s Michelle but that removed what was interesting and different about the previous editions.

not recommended