????

Didn't anyone else in the last 20 years do anything better?

I hadn't realized that the Nobel Peace Prize had become a consolation prize for not winning the Olympics Prize or a substitute for a non-existent Nobel Speech Prize.

Spent the past several days in the Washington, DC area visiting a number of sites including Mt Vernon, Annapolis, US Capitol Building, Lincoln Memorial, White House, Arlington National Cemetery, Spy Museum and especially the Capital Jazz Festival 2009 where one of my favorite pop groups (Swing Out Sister) performed.

Corinne Drewery is really a musical goddess and when someone in the audience asked what took them so long to revisit the US, she replied "we had to wait until you got a new President"

Contest:

Pick the song Susan Boyle will sing in the Finals (which I think is tomorrow - submission void after actual perforance or any publication of the song to be sung). Prize: priceless (the admiration of CCN for your musical insight).

My analysis:

Let's follow the trend:

1) "I Dreamed a Dream" (Les Miserables) - 1st performance
2) "Memory" (Cats) - semi-final performance

(also Elaine Paige standards)

Helium-3

Possibly powering the world for the next 1,000 years with the possibility that we could see the start of that age within our lifetimes (for me, it would be interesting symmetry to be born at the dawn of the space age and see the fruition of our lunar exploration before heading out to the next adventure wherever that happens to be).

From the program notes:

I just might have to get this book :

(CNN) — It has become one of MSNBC host Chris Matthew's most infamous lines of the 2008 presidential election:

"I felt this thrill going up my leg," Matthews said the night Obama resoundingly defeated rival Hillary Clinton in the Virginia and Maryland Democratic primaries.

Well, I see Jim Rogers isn't on O's Ecnomic Advisory team...but it seems he has a lot to say here even if the politicians and public don't want to hear it (from a couple months ago):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH1SJhEbBKU (1/5)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkZ4B82zDT8&feature=related (2/5)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56x5RKp3LH0 (3/5)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVQudokWeus&feature=related (4/5)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlCSVDaDVXU&feature=related (5/5)

From http://www.mint.com/blog/finance-core/a-visual-guide-to-the-financial-crisis/

Just love seeing some photos taken in the early days of photography. The first inauguration captured by the lens was that of James Buchanan in 1857

Then four years later, here is the first Lincoln inauguration with the Capitol still under construction

I was just voting the way my dog made her wishes known

My hands are clean (although the bottom of my shoes may not be)

Faithful companion of nearly 14 years and probably won't be around much longer

Cloudy with current temperature of 61 degrees (F)