Fed Plays Some D vs. Del Potro: US Open09

As so often happens, even when Roger Federer loses, he produces the shot or point of the tournament. So it was at this fall's U.S. Open when five-time defending champion Federer was taken out by Juan Martin Del Potro, but not before doing this ...

Davydenko Tops the Best In Tennis

Congratulations to Russia's Nikolay Davydenko who yesterday won the year-end ATP Finals tournament in London by playing absolutely wonderful tennis. 

Mapping the Universe

You have to love astrophysicists. It takes a special combination of imagination, mathematical brilliance and sheer arrogance to create a map of a substance across vast stretches of space -- when you admit you don't know what that something is, and debate whether it even exists. 

That's why I love this image:

Obama Interview on Cuban Generation Y

An interview with President Obama is on the Generation Y blog by Cuban civil-rights activist Yoani Sanchez, from Havana. 

How Bad is the Healthcare Bill?

I was going to vent about how terrible the latest versions of the healthcare bill are, and how the GOP and "Blue Dog Democrats" are helping big industry damage our country, but economist Robert Reich has already done so very concisely: 

Great Lineup for ATP Year-End Finals

To appreciate just how competitive the top of men's professional tennis is, look at the round-robin groupings for the year-end ATP tournament, with the ponderous title of: Barlcays ATP World Tour Finals, in London, Nov. 22-30. 

Confusion Dominates Healthcare Reform Debate

Watching the fight over healthcare reform, I'm struck by how much disinformation there is on both liberal and conservative sides of the issue. Some of this is deliberate nonsense, like the right-wing's silly cries of "death panels", but much of the purported facts repeatedly cited are simply widely-held myths. 

Prisoner Returns: Be Seeing You

If I had to pick one TV series that was least likely to be remade, it would be Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner", yet AMC has the guts to try: The Prisoner will run on AMC for three nights starting Nov. 15th. A video sneak preview is embedded at the bottom of this post. 

Right Wing Paranoia Has Gotten Amusing

At first, the rush of right-wing paranoia that met Barack Obama's election was a bit frightening -- gun-toting protestors, red-faced screamers spitting venom to drown out discussion -- but the extremism has already descended into self-parody.

Looking for information on the upcoming remake of V, a science-fiction TV series, I stumbled on a meme that crosses discussion groups from Web sites about television, to science-fiction to politics: According to some right-wingers V's hidden message is a warning about Barack Obama. Seriously.