A few weeks ago while I was running down the road. I saw a vine growing over the back fence of a lot. I had never really seen hops up close before, but I was pretty sure that’s what it was. I ran by again this morning and resolved to photograph the plant.

I read a bit to compare the photos and the pedia says that it is called hop and that it is a bine and not a vine.
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I was surprised when a saw a Times story with a photo showing Obama wearing jeans at a rally. I am used to seeing photos of him in suits.

The story (Obama Infomercial, a Closing Argument to the Everyman 29 Oct 2008). Made no mention of the unusual attire.

I looked around and found some references to him sporting the Levi red tabs:
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I ran by Silver Lake this afternoon and the constructed waterfall over which the lake drains to go underground as it passes through uptown. The pool is much deeper than normal. I wonder why it isn’t draining.
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The night after the Obamamercial, Barackumentary, here are few clips of what the Americans are saying.

I like this story in Salon about the writer’s two-year-old:

Obama has already hit all of his talking points in every debate, and his face has appeared on our TV screens with clocklike regularity each night for weeks — even in California, a blue state that’s solidly in Obama’s column. You would have to be hiding out in a cave somewhere not to be familiar with Obama’s position on most issues. Even my 2-year-old has taken to shouting “Obama!” when she sees his face on our TV screen. (Last night, after we watched the news together, she added, “I want more Obama.”)
– Obama’s infomercial night Salon 30 Oct 2008

Here in the Los Angelese Times they make the point of it was also to help mobilize a get out the vote campaign as Obama pitched in the live conclusion of the show:

Aired on seven network and cable stations, the ad served as a national get-out-the-vote organizing tool for Obama operatives. It offered even the swiftest channel-flipper the chance to see Obama looking presidential, helping to condition voters to that possibility. And once again it proved to John McCain, and everyone else, how Obama’s deep pool of campaign cash has allowed him to rewrite the rules of the campaign.
– Obama ad dominates airwaves LA Times 30 Oct 2008

The Washington Post compares it to a Reagan campaign film:

As political filmmaking, “Barack Obama: American Stories” was an elegant combination of pictures, sounds, voices and music designed not so much to sell America on Barack Obama as to communicate a sensibility. The film conveyed feelings, not facts — specifically, a simulation of how it would feel to live in an America with Barack Obama in the White House. The tone and texture recalled the “morning in America” campaign film made on behalf of Ronald Reagan, a work designed to give the audience a sense of security and satisfaction; things are going to be all right.
– ObamaVision: An Appeal to the Masses Washington Post 30 Oct 2008

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The half-hour Obamamercial was amazing and interesting. I only caught pieces of it. Hopefully I can review more of it later.

It was inspiring, but also fascinating to watch the rhetorical techniques and video composition.

I was disappointed to learn that the “keep your fork” story that the speaker at Saturday’s morning convocation told is a published story and a common e-mail forward. I still liked the talk and in this case prefer a speech that isn’t unique to one that is boring.

I found a page on snopes about it. The first of two main stories is about a British Royal being told after a meal during a visit to Canada to keep his fork. That one is the e-mail forward. The second is about a terminally ill woman telling her pastor that she wants to be buried with a fork because “the best is yet to come.” That one is a story in A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul.
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Can you see the life in this photo of the back of a movie theatre? Take a closer look.

Yes, in the tradition of finding a tomato plant growing in a parking lot, I found a corn plant growing behind a movie theatre.
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Here is more background on the Brick Brewing delisting review.

The Waterloo Region Record has a story:

Brick Brewing Co. Ltd. is in “serious financial difficulty” and is relying on insiders to recapitalize the company, according to a disclosure to securities regulators made public yesterday.

The Waterloo-based brewery plans to raise $2.5 million by selling shares and warrants to two existing shareholders and to chief executive officer George Croft.

The private placement may increase Brick’s shares outstanding by 51 per cent. Ordinarily, this would require approval of shareholders, but Brick is claiming an exemption from the TSX’s requirement because it is in serious financial difficulty.
– Brick Brewing in serious financial straits Waterloo Region Record 28 Oct 2008

• Brick Brewing under delisting review at TSX 28 Oct 2008

Brick Brewing Co. Ltd. is under delisting review at the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Brick Brewing Co. Limited (the “Company”) – TSX is reviewing the common shares of the Company (Symbol: BRB) with respect to meeting the continued listing requirements of TSX. The Company has been granted 120 days in which to regain compliance with these requirements, pursuant to the Remedial Review Process.
– TSX Delisting Review - Brick Brewing Co. Limited (BRB) TSX 28 Oct 2008

The criteria for delisting is described in the TSX Company Manual

D. Delisting Criteria
(1) Insolvency
(2) Financial Condition and/or Operating
(3) Market Value and Public Distribution
(4) Failure To Comply With TSX Requirements & Policies
(5) Change In Business
– Part VII Halting of Trading, Suspension and Delisting of Securities

Skimming through it I can’t see what the reason might be. There are minimum market valuation for example, but the limit is $3M and BRB is around $11.3M right now.

Don forwarded me an e-mail about an upcoming talk about academic mobbing. Contained therein was a link to an article that describes the phenomenon and quotes Waterloo sociology professor Ken Westhues.

The article opens by describing how seemingly defenseless birds gang up, harrass and chase away a bird of prey in what naturalists describe as mobbing. The term “workplace mobbing” was then applied to the similar behaviour in humans by German psychologist Heinz Leymann. Based on surveys of pastors in Stockholm, he estimated that 12 percent of people who committed suicide in Sweden had been mobbed recently.

The article goes on to describe mobbing activity at universities.

Here are some pieces of the article.
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