The Art Neuro Weblog

More X Prizes on the Way
After the success of the Ansari X Prize to produce private space travel, the X Prize people are contemplating other prizes for other technological sectors.

"When the X Prize was first announced in 1996, industry experts scoffed at the concept of private space travel," said Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation in a press statement. "This week, eight years later, the world watched with wonder as SpaceShipOne successfully conquered that exact challenge. Incentive prizes cause amazing, unexpected results," he said.

The new set of prizes are intended to inspire innovation and bring about breakthrough results with wide-ranging societal implications, such as life extension, molecular assemblers, water purification, hydrogen generation, and similarly ambitious goals. Commercially, they are intended to create leaps in research and development that will benefit all participants and open new markets.

"The really exciting thing, I think, about this...is that the sky's the limit," said
James Clark, founder and chairman of the WTN. Both groups are looking to
identify Fortune 500 companies interested in assisting in the creation of the
prizes by funding the purse in turn for title sponsorship rights.

This is in the best spirit of bringing enterprising commerce and cutting edge research together. This in iteslf is a spin off of our quest of space. Do we need more reasons why shouldn't consider an Australian Space Industry?

He's Not Competitive, He's Just Not Well - In The Head
Kevin Brown Starts for the Yankees today. The NYTImes has this article in lieu of a profile on the Left Hand of Stupidity himself:

Sheffield is the closest thing to a friend that Brown, the ultimate loner, has
on the Yankees because they were teammates on the Florida Marlins and the Los Angeles Dodgers. When Brown feels comfortable and confident, Sheffield said, he has the look; it's a half-glazed, half-crazed expression that warns anyone within a few blocks to get in a cab or at least cross the street.

For the first time since Brown fractured his left, nonpitching hand on Sept. 3, Sheffield expects him to have the look. If Brown tosses six effective innings and the Yankees win and can brace themselves for Johan Santana in Game 4, Brown might even offer some one-liners about his travails.

Then again, maybe not.

"He won't see any of us,'' Sheffield said. "He'll walk by you, you could speak and he won't react. He isn't ignoring you. He doesn't see you. He goes that far into focus. A lot of people can't comprehend that.''

Err, Yeah, sure, Sheff. Then there's this bit:

Even Sheffield, who has visited Brown's mansion in Macon, Ga., and who counseled Brown while he recuperated from his injury, conceded that he did not have meals with him on road trips.

"It ain't nothing like he goes out of his way to come to make sure he comes to my house or vice versa,'' Sheffield said. "If we cross, we cross.''

Torre has called Sheffield a conduit to Brown, another sign of how flimsy a relationship the manager has with his pitcher. Torre does not need a conduit to Javier Vazquez or Jon Lieber.

But Torre, who called Brown a volatile person but a terrific competitor, also said that Brown's minirevival made him optimistic about Game 3.

Oh Great. The Yankees are entrusting Game 3 to the pitching equivalent of a drooling, berserker-cultist axe-wielder.

Team manager of Alsorans predicts that the it will be a Cardinals-Twins World Series and that the Cardinals will trounce the Twinkies. I am a Yankee fan, so I say, Yankee-Cardinals and Yanks win. Good Lord I'm stupidly faithful. :)

More Jeter hagiography. They don't just write this stuff because it sells. They write this stuff because they ain't seen nothing like it before, and it puts us all into a happy place.

Meanwhile The Bastards Are Saying This
The New York Times no less is saying that the world would be a better place if the Red Sox won it all this year.

Fine. Whatever it takes. These 2004 Sox need to do away with all those failures and fumbles committed by other people in other decades, other centuries. Give us all a break.They need to do it not only for the so-called Red Sox Nation but also for baseball fans out there in America who have taken on the Sox as some kind of auxiliary cause.

It is kind of cool to care about the Red Sox, just as it is hip to root for the Cubbies, with their old ballparks and their old collapses. But I no longer observe the hokey Babe Ruth curse business, and that asinine billy goat hex in Chicago has always been too cute for me.

Just win a World Series, just once, as the Braves did a decade ago. The Minnesota Twins and the Toronto Blue Jays each won two. It can't be that impossible.

Of course, they would say that because they own part of the Red Sox. Not content with that, they're writing this Crap!

Home for today's game against Anaheim and tomorrow's if there needs to be a tomorrow, the Red Sox can virtually count on playing the Yankees or Minnesota
next Tuesday.

The Yankees can't be so certain of playing, even though they avoided an 0-2 deficit by making another of what has become their trademark come-from-behind victories.
So the question arises: If the Red Sox beat the Angels, will they be disappointed if they don't play the Yankees in the league championship series?

Who says they're going to win it all except the red Sox Nation and The New York Times?
I told you Mr. Weasel there's an Anti-Yankee media bias! In their own city no less!

Election Day in Australia
I love these. I voted first up. You could say I'm a motivated vote-caster. It's just my nature.
Gotta love democracy.

- Art Neuro