Hello, all. I am traveling to Morocco, Tunisia, and Sicily next month. I have an aquaintance, Ahmed, who lives in Tunis, with whom I have been corresponding regarding my itenerary. He is going to show us around the city, drive us to our next city, and arrange for “cultural events.” I would like to bring him a gift from the U.S. for his generosity. He is intently interested in politics and international diplomacy.

I am trying to think of a gift that would be very American. Ideas?

Gonzo, the new Hunter S. Thompson doc is out in Larryville today.  In honor of him and of alupa, I submit the following:

Thompson’s 9/11 response.

I can always look at the older pictures of hunter and imagine a crazy-old dude, younger pictures of him always kind of freak me out.

Of “I want my MON-EY” fame? The little girl cursing at Will Ferrell?

Well here’s the second installment, “Good Cop, Baby Cop.”

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/14/crab-fus-flapper-fish-bot-creeps-us-the-hell-out/

Or how i stopped worrying and learned to love greenhouse gas…

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/02/klimatic-base-1-airwater-machine-pulls-drinking-water-from-the-a/

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/23/dean-kamen-aims-to-clean-water-generate-electricity-with-slings/

It constantly amazes me how many problems we could solve if we threw some bucks to underfunded technologies instead of bridges to nowhere.

This is so cool. The Eye-Fi photo card looks like an ordinary memory card for your digi camera, but it stamps your pictures when you take them and wirelessly uploads the time stamp, geotag, and picture to your computer when you get home via wi-fi.

Hello. I’m collecting ideas for Lawrence-specific charities. Suggestions?

That’s what St. Louisians (those from St. Louis) call Anheuser-Busch.

I spent last weekend in St. Louis watching DMB play in the beautiful new Busch Stadium.

The stage was in right-center and they had porta-potties set up in the bullpen, that’s right, I have peed in the visitors bullpen in Busch Stadium.

The point however is that international brewery mega-whatnot InBev is trying to buy AB and those from St. Louis are freaking out a bit. If there is one thing that those strangely named people love more than the Cards is AB. And no matter how you feel about their beer, AB is a great corporate partner for the city. If you’ve ever touristed StL you know that many things are free and most of that is due to the Brewer.

In the past decade AB has slipped from 1st to 3rd in global sales and their attempts to jump on the craft-beer surge have mostly failed. InBev, a Belgium-Brazilian conglomerate (which is fascinating that a Belgium-Brazilian company would have the power to buy-out the once undisputed king, globalization yada yada yada) owns the Beck’s, Stella and Brazilian Brahma brands.

link, if you want more the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a lot of interesting articles and reactions from various actors in the city. It really is quite fascinating to see how people are reacting to the possible cooptation of what is vital to their city identity. Articles from today.

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Wall Street Journal Piece about the rise of InBev.

This is a further consolidation of the great American Breweries, AB, Miller and Coors.

Miller Brewing was bought out by London based South African Brewery (SAB) in 2002, from Phillip-Morris, and Coors is owned by Molson Coors Brewing Co based in Denver.

And SABMiller and Molson Coors actually coordinate US operations:

“On October 9, 2007, SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company announced that they had agreed to combine the U.S. and Puerto Rico operations of their respective subsidiaries, Miller and Coors, in a joint venture.

SABMiller and Molson Coors expect the transaction to generate approximately $500 million in annual cost synergies to be delivered in full by the third full financial year of combined operations. The transaction is expected to be earnings accretive to both companies in the second full financial year of combined operations.

SABMiller and Molson Coors will each have a 50% voting interest in the joint venture and have five representatives each on its Board of Directors. Based on the economic value of the contributed assets, SABMiller will have a 58% economic interest in the joint venture and Molson Coors will have a 42% economic interest.”

Finally, another St. Louis brewery, Schlafley, is a somewhat aggressive micro-brew. Like other micros they have a very environmentally sound mission. I couldn’t get tomatoes b/c they use them from their own garden out back and they weren’t in season yet, and generally they have a goofy menu.

The real point is to read the ramblings of their owner. If you read nothing else read this,

the non sequiturs are quite impressive.

>компютри://www.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/gonzo/trailer/

I really think Obama is going to win this and it comes down to one thing. McCain is old. Dude is 72 years old.

You’ll see more before/after presidential montages than you can handle.

Great article by David Brooks. (Brooks is great when he drops the hammer indiscriminately)

“We haven’t had two presidential candidates as far removed from the mainstream suburban lifestyle. McCain’s family has been military for generations. But Obama’s path through the university towns is particularly elusive.”

Generation addressed here.

“The real significance of the age difference is not about health and mortality but about worldview, about ideology, about how the candidates understand the threats we face and the world we’re in. A candidate like McCain, born in the final years of the Depression and shortly before the outbreak of World War II, will simply have a different frame of reference from a candidate born, as Obama was, in 1961, the year President Kennedy took office and Bob Dylan arrived in New York. And that should be discussed openly.”

Finally, a great, “what the hell happened to Clinton piece” here.