Vin Crosbie's Personal Blog

For his business blog, visit http://www.digitaldeliverance.com

Osama bin Lauden Lost Islamic Support Before He Lost Life

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The Economist today reports that polling by the Pew Research Center showed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Lauden had lost popular support in Islamic countries years before a US Navy counter-terrorism team took his life.  “This may reflect a genuine change in attitudes after al-Qaeda’s high-profile attacks in places such as Bali and Jordan, as well as its violence in Iraq. But it could also reflect Mr bin Laden’s lower profile in recent years.”

A Prospectus for Tea Party Land

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Tea Cup Ride on High Street, Solihull by ell brown

I’m thinking of raising capital for a new venture—Tea Party Land.

This amusement park located in Middle America will have little or no government, ban admission to immigrants, and comprise Hannity Town, Old Testament Ingrahamstan , Beck Fantasyland, Coultershire, and O’Reillytopia. All its streets will lead to Fox Castle where every hour on the hour Princess Palin appears from a balcony.

Tea Party Land will be the first family amusement park to feature rides engineered according to Creation Science and Supply-Side Economics: such as the Holy Rollercoaster down the mighty Limbaughorn, the Trickledown Waterslide (is your mortgage underwater?), and It’s A Cool Cool Cooling World.

What other rides, cuisines, and features should we include?

(Photograph, Tea Cup Ride on High Street, Solihull, courtesy of Ell Brown on Flickr.)

Charming Mashup

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Charming mashup of Oliver Laurel & Stan Hardy’s 1937 Way Out West dance scene with Cachao’s Oye Como Va played by Santana.

Screw Company Stockholders

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The editor in 1958 was a Quaker who ‘didn’t get out much’ and who the pressmen hated because he’d frequently order last-minute changes to the front page (loads of work with melted lead type). So when he ordered this last-minute headline about Textron offering to purchase a local company that manufactured fasteners, they decided that their role wasn’t to question but to obey. The next day, Textron’s legal department ordered 50 copies. And my parents, the newspaper’s publishers, spent the next week explaining to Textron that no harm was meant.

An Old Chestnut: The Original Trailer for ‘Star Wars’

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Here’s an old chestnut: the original Star Wars trailer exhibited six months before the film’s release. It’s a collection of seemingly random clips—probably because much of the unfinished movie has yet to be filmed—when the movie studio wasn’t sure what the film was about or if the film would bomb or hit. The trailer also lacks the firms musical score. Note the voiceover’s unintentionally tentative tone!

Climbing, Kayaking, and Biking a Swiss Border Circumnavigation

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When I was growing up, I was a big fan of the mountaineer John Harlin II, who tragically was killed when a falling rock severed the rope he was hanging from during the first directissima ascent of the Eiger‘s legendary North Face, a climbing route that’s subsequently became known as the Harlin Route.

So, I was pleased to see his son John Harlin III, who was age nine when his father died but nowadays also is a mountaineer and the editor-in-chief of the American Alpine Club‘s American Alpine Journal, and who is now my age, is endeavoring to circumnavigate Switzerland by traveling entirely along that country’s borders.

If that doesn’t sound hard, understand that:

  • Switzerland’s southern border contains the summits of some of the Alps most notorious and highest peaks—including the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa, the second highest mountain in the Alps. Harlin will have to climb those peaks.
  • The northeast quarter of Switzerland’s border includes the Rhine, which that far upstream includes the Rheinfall, Europe’s version of Niagara Falls. Harlin will have to kayak down that river.
  • The rest of Switzerland’s borders include several hundred kilometers of meandering hills and escarpments that Harlin will have to mountain bike.

All of that is a formidable endeavor for any athlete or outdoorsman.  Indeed, Harlin fell while climbing the alpine Franco-Swiss border on the tenth day of his journey, broke a rib and five bones in his feet, and had to suspend his endeavor.

He’s now resumed his journey, but this time is starting at the headwaters of the Rhine and by tomorrow should reach Basel, completing the Rhine river portion of his journey. Swissinfo.ch, the website of Swiss Radio International, is sponsoring the journey, and you can read Harlin’s daily trip blog there.


The Stupidest Picture of Me Ever

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Sundowners
This photo makes me look so stupid that I had to publicly post it!

It’s Gin & Tonic time at sunset on the plains of the Shamwari Game Reserve, near Sidbury, Eastern Cape, South Africa. At left, Safari guide Jamie Keenan and Australian surfing photographer Jan Wainwright-Wilson with hors d’oeuvres, mainly cheese and dried antelope jerky. Photo by Emma Rodriguez Suarez. Immediately after this photo, I remember watching a herd of rhinoceros a few hundred meters to my left. Beats any bar in Manhattan!

Cebu Pacific Airlines Flight Attendants Dance The Safety Instructions

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Prior to World War II, airline flight attendants were required to be registered nurses. How the qualifications for that jobs has changed! Here is a recent (yesterday) video a passenger shot aboard a Cebu Pacific Airlines flight on which flight attendants danced their recitation of the airline’s Airbus safety instructions.

No surprisingly, six months ago Cebu Pacific, a discount airline based in Manila, was banned from flying to European Union countries. EU officials decided that the airline’s safety and aircraft maintenance practices weren’t safe enough. The EU also banned most other airlines based in the Philippines.

‘Romantic’ Willimantic, My Hometown

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The Willimantic Experience from Jake Williams on Vimeo.

‎’Romantic’ Willimantic, my hometown, from the viewpoint of students at Eastern Connecticut State University in the Prospect Hill neighborhood where I grew up. Not quite the ‘Heroin Town’ CBS’s 60 Minutes portray it as 7 years ago. Willimantic is also the market town for the University of Connecticut (UCONN), 7 miles north in rural Storrs.