semenya video

11 am Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
caster semenya, semenya, caster semenya photos, semenya pictures, semenya photos

Peak:
5 hours ago

Caster Semenya easily won the Women's 800 meter title at the Berlin world championships, but the 18 year old's true gender has been called into question.

My Take: Tough issue. I grew up in the time of Renee Richards, whose career as a female tennis player was easy comic fodder. However, as time has passed it has become more commonly acknowledged that there are some who are born without a clear physiological distinction between male and female. This is potentially a time when reality simply does not conform to our simple categories and traditional notions.

The issue is compounded because we expect women to be slower than men in similar running events due to normal physiology, so placing a line in the sand of what it means to be a "woman" becomes important to the competition. This issue will never come up for someone who is competing as a man.

09e5 Results

10 am Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
afpc, 09e5 promotion list, af portal, 09e5, air force portal

Peak:
4 hours ago

Location:
5% - Warner Robins, GA

The US Air Force SSgt promotion test results for 09e5 were posted today. The highest location is Warner Robins, GA, home to Robins AFB.

My Take: I understand that people who tested are interested in the results, but, wow, are there really that many people testing?

Ryan Alexander Jenkins Wikipedia

9:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
megan wants a millionaire, ryan alexander jenkins, ryan alexander jenkins wiki, ryan alexander jenkins megan wants a millionaire, jasmine fiore

Peak:
4 hours ago

WARNING: THE FIRST SITE THAT COMES UP ON GOOGLE IS VIRUS INFECTED.

Ryan Alexander Jenkins is a contestant on a not-yet aired VH1 reality series, "Megan Wants a Millionaire". The production is complete, but the show has been postponed indefinitely because Jenkins has been identified as a Person of Interest in the investigation of the murder of his wife, Jasmine Fiore.

My Take: Whoa, boy, this just has film noire written all over it, doesn't it? I guess I shouldn't make light of a murder investigation. I imagine we'll all know when this one reaches a resolution, though.

Energy Citizens

8:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium Related searches: energy citizen, lewin group Peak: 14 hours ago Location: 20% - Houston, TX 8% - New York, NY

Energy Citizens is a group organized to protest the proposed climate change legislation. The group is backed by Big Petroleum.

My Take: It sounds like a variation of Thank You for Smoking. As with health care, the stakes are huge and there are special interests on both sides (don't for a moment think that there aren't). My opinion is that we need to reduce our reliance on oil, but the issues for me are primarily economic. I have lived through global cooling in the 70s and global warming and now it's just climate change. I also believe that better local energy production and reducing or even eliminating the electrical grid is a national security issue. I am not a fan of these debates because there is too much certainty on both sides about issues which are far too complex for us to understand at this time. Whatever side you take, please be humble and treat the other side with respect because you are probably both wrong.

Lauren London and Lil Wayne

5:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
lauren london, nivea and lil wayne, nivea, lauren london pregnant, lauren london pics

Peak:
6 hours ago

Location:
5% - New York, NY

Lil Wayne has confirmed that Lauren London is pregnant with his child. His girlfriend, Nivea, is also pregnant with his child. This will give Lil Wayne four children by four different women.

My Take: Maybe someone thinks this is cool, but I don't get it. Seems like the people most impressed by this live in NYC, which just lowers my respect for the folks in NYC (Yankees suck, BTW, and I'm just that much more pissed off because they took three of four from the M's last weekend).

Muff

4:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
what is a muff, that 70 s show, bebo.com signin, laura prepon, that 70 s show cast

Peak:
2 hours ago

Okay. So I'm guessing that a rerun of Episode 7.03 of That 70s Show must have aired today, and that some people didn't get the "muff" joke and really didn't want to be ignorant like Kitty (here's the script; do a search for "muff " - with a trailing space).

My Take: Back in the day "muff" was a slang term for a female's pubic hair. Maybe things have changed, but I believe that's the reference implied on the show. I will not include a picture for this story.

Nicole Brewer and Damien Gurganious

3:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Peak:
2 hours ago

It was announced today that Nicole Brewer and Damien Gurganious, former contestants on the reality show The Biggest Loser, have gotten married.

My Take: Good for them! I'll tell you, trolling around these hot search terms you see a lot of crappy stories, so it's nice to see some positive news for a change.

Brett Favre Jersey

2:00pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
brett favre viking jersey, brett favre jerseys, brett farve jersey, brett favre records, favre jersey

Peak:
3 hours ago

Location:
7% - Minneapolis, MN

Pro-football Hall-of-Famer-to-be Brett Favre has signed a two year contract with the Minnesota Vikings. This is his third team in as many years. Signing with the Vikings means the inevitable spike in marketable goods like replica jerseys. Note that the search location was neither Green Bay nor New York.

My Take: you know, at his current pace, Favre will have a jersey for every team in only 29 more years. It's really a tremendous marketing ploy; I'm surprised no one came up with it before.

Sweet Street Desserts

9:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
trend, trend micro, pregnant with 12, tren

Peak:
3 hours ago

Sweet Street Desserts makes desserts. So why is it spiking? Ya got me...

My Take: some of these entries just make you go "Huh?" I mean, why the spike? And look at those related searches: Trend Micro? Pregnant with 12? Come on guys, give me a clue!

Petey Mulherin

8:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
marisa cristinzio, fat camp mtv, rescue me, camp pocono trails, fat camp

Peak:
4 hours ago

Location:
8% - New York, NY

Petey Mulherin was one of the subjects of the MTV Fat Camp reality show that aired in 2006.

My Take: not clear why searches for Petey are spiking. There was a nice review in the Washington Post when the series first aired; perhaps a recent airing has caused the spike.

Greg Paulus Syracuse

3:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
greg paulus i kissed a boy, syracuse football, greg paulus, greg paulus football, syracuse football roster

Peak:
3 hours ago

Location:
6% - New York, NY

Greg Paulus was named the starting quarterback for Syracuse. In the past Syracuse has produced such offensive stars as Jim Brown and Art Monk, but last year the Orange fell to 114th in offense in the nation. This year rookie head coach Doug Marrone is placing his trust in Paulus to restore the Orange to greatness...or at least get them in the headlines because Paulus, now a graduate student at Syracuse, has spent the last four years playing point guard for Duke University.

Paulus played quarterback in high school, but not since, and has had only one week of collegiate practice before being named the starter.

My Take: Interesting story. Word is he's also tried out for a few pro clubs, so this is likely just a way to hone his skills in hopes of getting drafted into the NFL. We'll see what happens.

2:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
tim tebow, tebow girlfriend, lucy pinder, heisman trophy winners, erin drewes

Peak:
3 hours ago

Location:
8% - New York, NY

Tim Tebow is the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback for the defending NCAA National Champion Florida Gators. Shockingly, Tebow has a girlfriend. Shockingly, Tebow's girlfriend is a hottie.

My Take: I have no idea if the girl in the photo is his as-yet unnamed girlfriend (who is not Lucy Pinder) or not. Oh, yeah, just to be clear that I'm not being sexist, here are pix of Tebow in GQ, too.

Update: here's some more info. Apparently the girl in the picture is the suddenly famous Erin Drewes.

playstation 3 price drop

1:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
playstation 3, playstation 3 slim, playstation 3 price, playstation 3 price cut, playstation 3 slimline

Peak:
3 hours ago

Sony announced a price drop in its flagship PS3 gaming console from $399 to $299 dollars. This drop in price includes a 50% increase in storage to 120GB, power reduction of 34%, and a redesigned chassis reducing space requirements by 32%. Of the three major consoles, the PS3 remains 3rd in worldwide sales behind Sony's Wii and Microsoft' XBox 360.

My Take: there is some evidence for a shift in unit sales among the three consoles. The XBox 360 saw sales improve significantly after its last price cut. However, the worldwide software sales chart ending August 8th shows a total dominance of the Wii, so it may be a little soon to say that the Wii is in trouble.

Hailey Glassman interview

4:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
san joaquin delta college, jon and kate cops, delta college, los rios community college, jon and kate gosselin

Peak:
2 hours ago

Hailey Glassman is the daughter of Kate Gossselin's tummy-tuck surgeon who is now dating Kate's estranged husband Jon Gosselin (shown inset). Jon and Kate are famous for having eight children: sextuplets and fraternal twins and the reality TV show about their life, Jon & Kate Plus 8. (Kate's tummy tuck was free, if you don't count the destruction of her marriage.) Glassman has made her first interview, and another first interview about the relationship, hence the uptick in searches.

My Take: I dunno. I haven't found this stuff too interesting since I graduated high school.

Sam Benigno

3:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Peak:
4 hours ago

Location:
35% - New York, NY
7% - Pearl River, NY

Okay, I'm having problems here. I can't seem to find any information on Sam Benigno. Could be Samantha Benigno. Seems only of interest to folks in New York. Anyone out there want to clarify?

My Take: must be something that has hit any of the search engines yet. Lots of people are looking, though, and they're all from New York.

Slade Heathcott

10:00 am Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Peak:
2 hours ago

Location:
12% - Prairieville, LA
12% - New York, NY

The New York Yankees first round draft choice, Slade Heathcott, to a contract. I can't find the terms of the deal anywhere except that he received a $2.2 million signing bonus, roughly double what was expected for a player drafted in his draft slot (27th).

My Take: you will note that the searches spike in two places, New York (where he signed), and Prairieville, LA. Prairieville is just south of Lousisiana State University (LSU). Heathcott had pledged to play for LSU, but it looks like that's out the window for them now.

And, of course, by doubling the slot money for Heathcott, the Yankees continue to pound the small market baseball teams into financial submission.

Blairsville GA

9:00 am Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
blairsville ga newspaper, kristi cornwell, meredith emerson

Peak:
5 hours ago

Location:
6% - Atlanta, GA

Last week Kristi Cornwell was apparently kidnapped last Tuesday while standing on the street talking on her cell phone with her boyfriend. Cornwell, a resident of Blairsville, GA, has not been heard from since her disappearance. Progress in the investigation has stalled, and her family appeared this morning on national talk shows asking for help in finding her.

My Take: although the plea was nationally televised, the spike in interest remains centered around Atlanta.

Investigators are looking for a white SUV van and an older tan or gold Nissan or Toyota subcompact. If you have any information please call 706-835-2900 or 706-835-2902.

Who Self Destructs on Big Brother

10:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
big brother 11, big brother, big brother spoilers, big brother *redacted*, big brother *redacted* evicted

Peak:
3 hours ago

Big Brother - I think it's airing right now on the Left Coast, so don't follow the links if you don't want to know. Folks who couldn't hold their wad leapt all over this at 9pm Eastern time causing a sharp spike. The talk early in the week was Russel, Michelle, and Chima.

My Take: You wanna know? Check it out here and here and here. I redacted some stuff in the related searches so not to give it away.

Knoxville Speedway

7:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
knoxville nationals 2009, knoxville raceway, hoseheads, world of outlaws, speed channel

Peak:
2 hours ago

The National Sprint Car Championships for 2009 took place over eight days at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. For those who, like me, are unfamiliar with sprint cars I've included a picture of the car driven by Danny "The Dude" Lasoski to give you some perspective. The Knoxville Raceway is a 1/2 mile oval dirt track.

There seems to have been three class championships determined during the eight days of racing: 360, 410, and non-winged.

NOTE: the server for the Knoxville Raceway appears to be down (or overloaded) at present, so I can't give you more info about the raceway or the results.

My Take: It's fun to see local (around here) hero Kasey Kahne mentioned in print. Knoxville is located a few miles SE of Des Moines. Knoxville is also home to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum.

I suspect the confusion between the terms "raceway" and "speedway" have something to do with the ranking, although Knoxville Raceway is mentioned in the related searches section.

World Track and Field Championships

10:00 am Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
world track and field championships 2009, track and field championships, world track and field, 2009 world track and field championships, world championship track and field

Peak:
2 hours ago

The World Track and Field Championships started yesterday in Berlin, Germany and run through next Sunday, the 23rd. Today will culminate with the Men's 100 Meter final in a couple of hours.

The first day is largely a qualifying day, but there were three event finals:

• Men's 20 km Race Walk

1. Valeriy Borchin (RUS) - 1:18:41
2. Hao Wang (CHN) - 1:19:06
3. Eder Sánchez (MEX) - 1:19:22

• Women's 10 km Run

1. Linet Chepwemoi Masai (KEN) - 30:51.24
2. Meselech Melkamu (ETH) - 30:51.34
3. Wude Ayalew (ETH) - 30:51.95

• Men's Shot Put

1. Christian Cantwell (USA) - 22.03
2. Tomasz Majewski (POL) - 21.91
3. Ralf Bartels (GER) - 21.37

My Take: I love track and field. Because the equipment for most events is minimal, people from all over the world can compete on relatively equal footing. Sure, the wealthier countries can afford better training on average, and larger countries have more people to draw from, but this is as close as it gets to a true athletic meritocracy. The strength, speed, and endurance of these athletes is truly incredible. If you ever have the opportunity to see a high level track meet up close, do it. You can't believe how much better these athletes are than your typical high school varsity runner. I've run several times against (well, in the same race as) Tony Young, the age group world record holder in the mile for in my age group - you have no idea how humbling that sort of experience is.

The Goods reviews

9:00 am Pacific

Hotness: Spicy

Related searches:
the goods, the goods live hard sell hard, district 9, the good, the goods imdb

Peak:
5PM (PDT)

The move The Goods opened this weekend, and this search is for reviews of the movie.

My Take: although there were a few LOL moments, the movie is uneven. The gags and, in particular, the speeches, are too long. Turn the speeches into visual comedy and this could have been a decent 23 minute film. There were too many characters, and I can't think of one strong performance by any of them. Too bad. It's not that there aren't funny people in this film, but the characters don't seem to have any affinity for each other, and the plot doesn't create the dramatic interest needed to create the sympathy for the characters. The main character's inexplicable voyage into the desert removes him from the plot at what should have been the most critical (read: funniest) part of the film. Bummer.

On the other hand I did enjoy 500 Days of Summer last week.

San Diego Chargers

7:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
san diego chargers schedule, qualcomm stadium seating chart, san diego chargers tickets, seattle seahawks, nfl

Peak:
3 hours ago

Location:
14% - San Diego, CA

The San Diego chargers open their pre-season at home against the Seattle Seahawks. Like right now. Like I'm watching it.

My Take: see what I mean?

Detroit Lions TV Schedule

6:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
detroit lions, detroit lions schedule, detroit lions preseason schedule, detroit lions preseason, nfl network

Peak:
5 hours ago

Location:
9% - Grand Rapids, MI
8% - Madison Heights, MI

Pretty self explanitory.

My Take: I think we'll see a lot of these things popping up as the football pre-season starts up, and probably again when the regular season begins. Remember, Google Trends identifies search terms that are showing up more now than they have in the past, not necessarily terms that are all that high in overall search rank.

Y. E. Yang

4:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Peak:
2 hours ago

Y. E. Yang is a professional golfer hailing from Korea. He has one victory in 61 career PGA events. He is in the news this week because he goes into the final day of the PGA Championship tied for second with defending champion Padraig Harrington at 6 under par. Because he completed his round before Harrington, Yang will be paired with leader Tiger Woods for the final round.

My Take: Good for him. Although some think that the pairing is a disappointment from a media standpoint (at least Tiger made the cut this time), it's still fun to watch the underdog go up against the Grand Master. BTW: Yang defeated Woods at the HSBC Champions in 2006 in China. Can he pull off another stunning upset (and if it's not stunning, is it really an upset)?

RMS Queen Mary

3:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Peak:
2 hours ago

To quote Wikipedia: "RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967... and is permanently berthed in Long Beach, California serving as a museum ship and hotel." There does not seem to be any news about the QM. There are articles, but nothing since August 8.

Perhaps the search is really looking for RMS Queen Mary 2, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, but other than that I can not find any news on the QM2 either.

My Take: is someone gaming Google? Or is this just a mistake in Google Trends? After all, there are no related searches listed, and no listing of geographic interest. Hmmm...

Denver Post

2:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
craigslist denver, denver broncos message board, denver broncos, denver broncos forum, knowshon moreno

Peak:
6 hours ago

Location:
24% - Denver, CO

Primarily in Denver, of course. Judging from the related searches, this ranking is primarily because of two factors associated with the Denver Broncos football team: there was a pre-season game last night against the San Francisco 49ers, and one of the star receivers for the Broncos, Brandon Marshall, was acquitted of domestic violence charges yesterday. Due to the trial and a hip injury Marshall has not practiced since August 2 so his absence from last night's game was anticipated.

My Take: I never know what to make of the trials of high profile athletes, and won't venture a judgement here. As with Sam Huntington this morning, it appears that it took both stories to push the Denver Post query into the top 100.

Why do golf balls have dimples?

1:00 pm Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
asthmatic kitty, thomas and his friends, thomas the tank engine, thomas the tank

Peak:
6 hours ago

This one took a while to understand. Not that the question isn't interesting (heck, I've often wondered why they use this technique on cars and trucks), but why in the world would it show up in the top 100? The reason turns out to be an online sweepstakes sponsored by the FedEx Cup.

The answer might be found here, but maybe not. This is a pretty good, only moderately involved answer, while this one gets straight to the point.

My Take: Honestly, you'd think that anyone interested enough in golf to even know that the FedEx Cup exists would know the answer, but I suppose that is expecting too much, isn't it. Just hit the damn ball, will ya fellah?

My biggest question is why the related searches involve Thomas the Tank Engine and Asthmatic Kitty? Bizarro.

Lance Armstrong Leadville 100

12:00 noon Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
leadville 100, leadville 100 live, leadville 100 mountain bike race, leadville 100 webcast, leadville 100 updates

Peak:
3 hours ago

Location:
12% - Pocatello, ID
5% - Raleigh, NC

The Leadville 100 is a mountain bike race taking place today in, of all places, Leadville, CO, but these are not in the little hills behind your house. It is a 100 mile race that starts at 10,500 feet and climbs to 12,600 feet, with 14,000 feet of climbing along the way. Good lord. The profile of the race has been raised the last few years as American road racing studs Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis have showed up.

Showed up, but not won. That honor belongs to 44 year old, six-time defending champion Dave Wiens, who rode both the road racing greats into the ground over the last couple of years. Yes, that's right: 44. He makes Armstrong look like a young whippersnapper. Gotta love it. Armstrong is favored, but Wiens is The Man in this race. We'll see how it plays out.

It may not be all about the bike, but this is the bike Armstrong will use in today's attempt to dethrone Wiens.

UPDATE: Armstrong beat Wiens' course record by 17 minutes to win the 2009 event.

My Take: a lot of people don't realize that Armstrong races off road as well as on. And anyone who has even walked around at 10,000 feet has got to wonder how the hell these guys can race at that altitude. I'm a runner, not a cyclist, but this kind of event always impresses me. That the race is expected to be dominated by guys on the north side of 35 is pretty cool to see. Gen Xers are soft (prove me wrong).

I think it's odd that even though the race is in Colorado, the two leading search areas are Pocatello, ID and Raleigh, NC.

Woodstock 1969

11:00 am Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
woodstock, woodstock 1969 facts, woodstock wiki, richie havens woodstock, woodstock 1969 photos

Peak:
24 hours ago

For those of you who haven't heard of Woodstock...really? Wow. Big event. Lots of references, but Wikipedia is always a good place to start (I particularly like the "Declined Invitations" section.) There are plenty of first person accounts out there, too.

My Take: it is generally accepted that this was the greatest music festival of all time and this or the shootings at Kent State in 1970 are used to mark the end of the childhood for the post WWII baby boom generation in the United States. I was seven at the time, and for me this was at best the third most important story of the summer behind the birth of my baby brother and the first moon landing. The largest festival I ever attended was the US Festival in the 80's (thanks Woz, I had a great time), but that was after the Who the concert tragedy, so the US Festival was a much more controlled environment.

In spite of it's image as a counter-culture event, Woodstock as been co-opted by the mainstream, in promotion, if not in spirit (in Seattle, for example, and in Houston). The hunger has been forgotten, the drugs have been romanticized, and only the music has truly lived on in its original form - but I guess the music was what it was all about anyway.

Jaffrey Fireworks

10:00 am Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
jaffrey nh, jaffrey nh fireworks

Peak:
2 hours ago

Location:
8% - Fitchburg, MA
6% - Manchester, NH

Clearly there are a lot of people looking for information on Jaffrey's 20th annual fireworks festival. Tis the season for local celebrations, and while this is not quite on the scale of the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit, a fireworks show that draws upwards of 40 thousand people is quite impressive.

My Take: nothing too interesting here if you don't live near Jaffrey, just people looking for local event info (granted, there are a LOT of people looking). I did run across this article from Yankee magazine on the staging of the 2001 show, which I enjoyed. If you're a fan of fireworks photos, there is a trough-full of them here (be sure to scroll down).

Sam Huntington

9:00 am Pacific

Hotness: Mild

Related searches:
jungle 2 jungle cast, jungle 2 jungle, jungle to jungle, the brooke ellison story, brooke ellison

Peak:
9 hours ago

Location:
5% - New York, NY

Sam Huntington is an actor who appears to be carving out a role as a comic book movie sidekick with his previous role is Jimmy Olsen in Superman Returns and his role in the upcoming Dylan Dog comic book adaptation, Dead of Night. There is also a rumor that he will reprise the Olsen role in an upcoming Superman flick.

My Take: Bleah, more Hollywood dreck a la the Garcelle Nilon stories we got to read yesterday with "stories" like this and this. On the plus side Huntington is mentioned in a more in depth article about Dead of Night, but on the minus side is that he needed mentions both for the Olsen reprise and the Dead of Night release to make the top 100. Does this mean that his star is rising? Or is he a coat-tail riding talent doomed to live out his days as the disappointing celebrity no one remembers in local pro-am golf tournaments? Only time will tell.

Santa Cruz Fires

9:00pm Pacific

Hotness: Medium

Related searches:
santa cruz sentinel, santa cruz ca, lockheed fire, santa cruz fire map, ksbw breaking news

Peak:
6 hours ago

Location:
7% - Santa Cruz, CA
7% - San Francisco, CA

(I figure I should start posting the Google Trend info just so you know I'm not blowing smoke.)

(Sorry about the smoke reference. Wasn't intended as a joke, just turned out that way.)

The fire started near Bonney Doon, CA around 7pm on Wednesday the 12th. The fire has consumed over 4000 acres in the area. For those familiar with the area, it is about 8 miles north of Santa Cruz and half-way between Hwy 1 and Hwy 9, two of the three major north-south routes into Santa Cruz. The area is sparsely developed. The fire is known as The Lockheed Fire because it is near the Lockheed Martin Santa Cruz campus.

A ranch owned by Cal Poly is also threatened by the fire. Cal Poly issued a press release that said in part: "An earlier report also indicated that the porch at the Staub House on the ranch burned. That incident was not related to the Lockheed Fire." (Someone was playing with matches while they watched the fire approach campus? The mind reels...)

A fire burned approximately 19,000 acres in the same area in the summer of 1948. No homes were destroyed in 1948, and no homes have been claimed yet by the current fire.

My Take: Having come of age in Silicon Valley I saw several fires in the Santa Cruz hills. Fires burn there just like the do anywhere else. What impresses me is the California presses overwhelming concern with issues related to the fire, but not the fire itself.

For example, in this report we find that Monterey County has issued an air quality advisory. Odd is that Monterey is south of Santa Cruz, which, itself is south of the fire. Odder is that the districts air quality control officer says, "We don't see any levels attributable to the fire." But oddest IS THAT THEY PRINTED THE STORY ANYWAY. Good heavens, is there no real news to report? Do they really have to report on the lack of news? It sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch.

And then there is the concern for the animals. Not the wild animals who, no doubt have been at best inconvenienced and at worst, uh, burned alive, but the abandoned pets (nice owners, that's all I can say: "We can't take Fido, he's gonna have to stay behind and be a real wiener dog"), and the FISH. Yes, the fish. I know there's nothing funny about thousands of acres being burned, but it strikes me as funny, and very California, that they should be writing stories about the safety of the fish.

Sometimes I really miss living in California.

Garcelle Beauvais Nilon

3:00pm Pacific

Garcelle Beauvais Nilon is a model (Avon, Mary Kay, Clairol, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Essence, Ebony, and titillatingly, Playboy). She also has extensive acting credits highlighted by NYPD Blue (71 episodes), and The Jamie Fox Show (97 episodes).

So, you ask, for what does such an accomplished woman make the top 100 today? She makes the list because she mentioned on The Wendy Williams Show that, unknown to the rest of the entertainment industry, Jamie Foxx has a new baby (as in "infant child"). She's not even on the list for something she did, only for bringing Foxx's situation to light.

*sigh*

My Take: Really, the bits aren't even real articles, just 50 word gossip items (see here, here, and here). One nice little fluff piece from last month, but for someone who seems to have lived an interesting life, nothing too terribly interesting about her at all.

Woodward Dream Cruise

1:00 PST

The Woodward Dream Cruise is a rolling car show that has been a Detroit tradition since 1995, but its roots go back to the dawn of the automotive age when Charles Brady King drove down the Woodward Avenue in his horseless carriage in 1896. The Detroit automakers and their employees later used Woodward Avenue to "test their prototypes" (ie: race their rods - ah, I can still smell the testosterone!).

The Dream Cruise draws 30 to 40 THOUSAND cars, and more than one million spectators are expected to line the street, making it the largest one-day automotive event in the world.

One of the highlights (or lowlights depending on your level of snobbery) is the inclusion of the Monkeemobile - the car used in the Monkees TV show.

My Take: I was off watching Gilligan's Island when they passed out the man-gene for automobile lust(BTW: Mary Ann, and it's not even close), but for those who have cars in their blood this seems like it would be a hoot. I liked this article by Paul Stenquist for a more personal perspective on an otherwise overwhelming event.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court selects Republic Airways as the winning bidder for Frontier Airlines

11:00 PST

Frontier Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 10, 2008 (chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a company to reorganize without necessarily ceasing operations). The bankruptcy arose because Frontier's credit card company, First Data Corp, required Frontier to hold more cash in order to ensure that Frontier would have sufficient cash to pay for the flights that customers had paid for; if Frontier did not fly, then First Data would be responsible for repaying the customers who had already bought tickets.

The U.S. Bankruptcy court selected Republic as the winning bidder over Southwest Airlines. Republic's bid was $108.75 million. Southwest was prepared to bid $113.6 million, but ultimately offered $170 million. Although Southwest's bid was significantly higher, it was contingent on their pilot's association reaching an agreement with Republic's pilots; Southwest dropped its bid when that agreement could not be reached.

Republic also acquired Midwest Airlines earlier this year.

The fact that two companies were bidding for Froniter Airlines is seen a possible sign that the economy is improving.

My take: it looks to me like interest in this topic is up because of an increase of roughly 10% in the Republic Airways Holding stock price. The transfer of ownership affects the Frontier employees primarily because Frontier will continue operating independently rather than being assimilated by Southwest, the Wal-Mart of the airline industry. I haven't been on an airplane for more than a year and I don't own any RJET stock, and don't work for any of the airlines involved, so the impact of this story on my daily life is pretty much zilch.