Two baby red tailed hawks are nesting on a building ledge on MIT’s campus and are expected to take flight any day now. It’s all being captured on a live webcam perched only inches from their nest. This will probably ruin your productivity so you can thank me later. The live feed can be found here. You’re going to have to download RealPlayer in order to watch, but it’s worth the effort. Around 5pm today, both parents came back to the nest with take-out for the kids. Watching a baby hawk tear apart a mouse is slightly revolting yet completely riveting.

[AMPS :: HawkCam :: 2006]

What the hell is going on in the U.S. Senate? Does anyone ever say, “Hey, wait a minute, what the f*ck are we doing? Wasn’t there something important we were supposed to do today?”

The Senate spent a good portion of yesterday debating whether to call the English language America’s “national language” or its national “common and unifying language”. Maybe I’m stating the obvious here, but nobody f*cking cares. These are the debates my tax dollars are funding? This is the pressing social issue of the day? Are you kidding me?

According to the article, “Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, disputed charges that making English the national language was racist or aimed at Spanish speakers.” Um, maybe you could possibly explain to me what the motivation is, Jimbo. I’m missing something.

This here is my favorite part of the article: “We are trying to make an assimilation statement,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina (pictured at right). Shouldn’t the Borg have to register as their own political party? I realize the Republicans aren’t far off the Borg agenda, but there are some subtle differences. Eh, potato potahto.

Graham: “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated”

[CNN.com - 'National' or 'common'? Senate ponders what to call English - May 19, 2006]

My esteemed Alma Mater is embroiled in quite a controversy right now. First, a website operated by someone who always got picked last in dodgeball, badjocks.com, made pictures available showing the NU women’s soccer team hazing their rookies last August. NU suspended the team indefinitely this week.

Then the university announced that it had recently punished the men’s swim team and the mascots for hazing newbies. The mascot hazing is probably the most shocking of these events because our mascot is easily one of the worst mascots in college sports, nay, in the history of sporting. Willie the Wildcat, a bloated version of Wile E. Coyote, was often played by a woman who made awkward and embarassing attempts to strut around as if he/she were the picture of cartoonish male virility. SI.com even declared Willy number 3 on their list of 10 worst mascots in college sports. The fact that anyone would put up with hazing in order to don this ridiculous costume boggles the mind.

[ESPN.com - Northwestern suspends women's soccer]
[ESPN.com - Northwestern: Men's swimming, mascots also hazed]
[SI.com - Photo Gallery - Not Hot Mascots]

Last weekend, the little sis and I ran a 10-miler in Philly. After the half-marathon, this run was easy… 10 miles downhill the entire time. The only problem was the crowd: 14,000 people running down Broad Street made it difficult to get around the slow people that insist on starting up front. No matter how hard race organizers try to get people to line up according to how fast they run, everyone insists on being as close to the start line as possible. This aggravates me to no end. I digress…

The above picture gives you a pretty good idea of what it was like… we’re somewhere over the horizon. This is only about a half-mile into the race, but after about 3 miles, we were corralled onto the two right-hand lanes of Broad Street, so the pack never thinned out. Lauren and I spent the entire time weaving around people, cutting on and off of the sidewalk, and running around the wrong side of the road barriers. Next year we’re elbowing our way to the front.

Here’s a picture of Lauren and me heading into the final stretch. Lauren and I stuck together for the entire run, but with about a quarter-mile to go, she took off on her final sprint. This picture was taken about 3 seconds before she realized the finish line was about 200 yards further than where she thought it was. If only the photographer had captured the look that was on her face only moments later. It was precious. If I had to describe the thoughts most likely running through her head to best describe the face she made, it would go something like this: “This isn’t the finish line? WHAT?!?! Oh my GOD!! I’m going to DIE! KILL ME! KILL ME NOW!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, END THIS INFERNAL MISERY!!” I think you can picture it.

One cool side note: on the same morning we ran down Broad Street, about 100 soldiers stationed in Iraq ran 6 loops around the Green Zone in the first ever Philadelphia-Baghdad Broad Street Run.

[The Broad Street Run]

A couple of weeks ago Christy and I traveled by Fung Wah to NYC to run in the Queens Half-Marathon. For those slow on the uptake, that’s a 13.1 mile jaunt through the 2nd most uninteresting borough in New York. And if you’re not familiar with the Fung Wah, a.k.a the wild chicken trucks, then I suggest you make yourself so. $20 each way on a Chinatown-to-Chinatown express bus from Hell. Two companies, Fung Wah and Lucky Star, run ruthlessly competitive bus services throughout the Boston to D.C. corridor. The buses are known to catch on fire sporadically and murders related to organized crime infiltration have been alleged. I was looking forward to the adventure. Christy was somewhat more apprehensive. We arrived without incident.

Onto the weekend’s big event…
Some of the recognizable sites of Queens? Shea Stadium, LaGuardia Airport, the park with the flying saucers on stilts, and McDowell’s restaurant where Prince Akeem, heir to the throne of Zamunda, found his bride.

We ran past none of those.

Although we did run along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway for about 100 yards. I run better on exhaust fumes anyway. In other words, the venue was lovely.

If you’re anxious to see the official results, you can click here. But to best capture the spirit of the race, I’ve posted the below photos that show the exciting finale over the last tenth of a mile:

As I pass the 13-mile marker, I kick it into high gear. The little guy behind me attempts to keep up.

I surge past Baron Von Red Shirt. Commence dust inhalation, Baron.

Von Red Shirt decides he’s not going to let me win this mad dash.

The little guy is quickly disappearing into the background during the final sprint.

Sadly, Von Red Shirt hits the finish a length ahead of me.

Only a second later, I hit the finish line.

No time has elapsed and yet I have advanced across the finish line. I am traveling faster than time.

The race is over and I put on my best “I think I might vomit” face. Still no time has elapsed. I’m supersonic.

FIN

If you grew up in the early 80s, and are a male, then there are two things you assuredly love: He-Man (from your formative years) and the Big Lebowski (from your college years). Am I right or am I right? Or am I right? Right… right… right.

Anywho… some strange folks at IdiotWork decided to mash the two of them together. Presenting He-Man, Man-At-Arms and the rest of the hyphenated hose-wearing heroes starring in [They peed on my rug]

I’ve been referring to Rocky Balboa as “The Italian Stallion” for pretty much my entire life. All along, I thought the reason for that was because somewhere in the Rocky movies he was referred to by that nickname. Lo and behold, I stumble upon this video and learn that Rocky never had that nickname in the movie. “Italian Stallion” was the name of the porn flick Sly starred in prior to his Rocky fame. The nickname was completely unrelated and yet somehow it stuck. At only 8 years old I was taunting Sly and his pornographic past. I feel like a part of my childhood innocence was stolen and I didn’t even know it.

On a lighter note, this video is hilarious. The footage from “Italian Stallion” is almost scene for scene identical to the documentary footage of Dirk Diggler as Brock Landers in Boogie Nights. This is obviously where they got their inspiration.

Update on my previous post on the Afghan Music Project:
As of May 1st, 2006, the Afghan Music Project CD has climbed to No. 12 on the iTunes World Music Chart. All credit is due to Chris Becherer and Adam Gouttierre, 2 Berkeley students who traveled to Kabul in the summer of 2005 to record and produce an album of traditional Afhgani music. They’re not getting the press they deserve on this, but this NPR blurb is a start.

[NPR : Music from Afghanistan a Hit Online]
[The Afghan Music Project]