My EFLI schedule confusion returns

Picture from the Post Noon

I must say, it has been an adventure trying to cover the new Elite Football League of India (EFLI) from afar. In my May 23rd EFLI post I thought I had the teams and schedule finalized. 

However, the May 29th Post Noon article American Football comes to town throws that all into question. From that article by G Aparna Sai (aparna.s@postnoon.com):

The Elite Football League of India (EFLI) happens to be the first men’s professional American Football league in India. Backed by the Sports Authority of India(SAI), the EFLI has nine teams from India alongside three foreign sides participating — a team each from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The league is set to hold its pre-season in Sri Lanka during the month of July while the inaugural season is set to kick start in November in India.

So we're back to 12 teams and the July schedule, which only features 8 teams, are preseason games? To deepen the mystery, my beloved Chennai Swarm updated a graphic on their Facebook page on June 1.

Looking further, EFLI also updated their Facebook graphic on June 1st and their About page lists 12 teams: the Bangalore Warhawks, Bengal Tigers, Chennai Swarm (Whoo-hoo!!!), Colombo Lions, Delhi Defenders, Hyderabad Skykings, Kolkata Vipers, Lahore Badshahs, Mumbai Gladiators, Peshawar Wolfpak, Pune Marathas and Punjab Warriors.

So, as near as I can tell, they're having a preseason in July played in Sri Lanka that only consists of 8 of the League's teams which oddly ends with some playoff games; and then they're having their full inaugural season which will still start in November. But I might be wrong about all that -- Lord knows I've posted about a bajillion different listings of the teams in the league so far, so there's no reason to conclude I have a handle on any of this yet.

Either way, there's plenty of time to hone our EFLI tailgating traditions and maybe, just maybe, the mighty Chennai Swarm are back!

Go Swarm Go!!!

 

Square wheeled tractor

Above is a 1954 Fordson tractor with square back wheels. Actually, the top and bottom flat part is composed of two hinged plates and sometimes it is an hexagon as it turns. At the 1:33 mark they have good slow motion sequence that shows the wheel mechanism in operation.

This setup was designed to dig trenches for drainage pipes in wet, soggy soil. It isn't the only odd wheel assembly to get bolted onto a Fordson tractor -- earlier I've posted about the Fordson Snow Devil.

EFLI tailgating recipes - Korma Puffs

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With the first game of the Elite Football League of India (EFLI) scheduled for July 15th our thoughts naturally turn towards appropriate tailgate snacks. As recorded in my earlier post, My EFLI tailgating quandry, as EFLI's first tailgater I took it upon myself to create Indian themed tailgate food for fans of the new league.

As I promised in my earlier post  I ordered some Tasty Bite packages and, using one of their recipes, I made some Korma Puffs.  

As you can see in the picture above the dish has simple ingredients: 1 pack of Good Korma Cooking Sauce, a package of crescent roll dough and some cheese. They suggested thin slices of cheese, I opted for shredded cheese instead.

Spread out the dough and place some Good Korma Cooking Sauce on each piece. They said to spread a very light layer, I sort of slopped it on to use most of the package on eight rolls (I think a package would have covered 16 rolls easily). I then sprinkled on the cheese and rolled the dough up.

I rolled my Korma Puffs from the pointy end first. In retrospect, I realized that crescent rolls were probably rolled from the broad end. However, since I am the very first EFLI tailgater I can pretty much set the rules and traditions. Therefore, I hereby decree that all EFLI Korma Rolls shall be rolled from the pointy end. 

Following the instructions on the crescent roll package, preheat your oven and then stick the Korma rolls in to be cooked. While waiting, I danced around the kitchen chanting "Go 2013 Swarm Go!!!" Feel free to perform whatever superstitious ritual you feel will help your team to victory.

Eat them warm. My wife, brother and myself taste tested them and they were quite good. Between the three of us we gobbled them down in one sitting. Three thumbs up from us.

The Good Korma Cooking Sauce imparted an unmistakable Indian flavor to the cheese filled rolls. The sauce was mild. If you prefer a spicier flavor you could try adding curry powder or red pepper to give it more of a kick.

I'll be doing more of the recipes in the coming days, so check back so's you can host your own EFLI tailgate party.
 

Big Man Japan finale

A final Big Man Japan installment to get you over hump day.The comments to the video said the old guy in the first fight was Big man Japan's grandfather. If so, it is kind of rude of Big man japan to accidentally kick his soul out of his gramp's body.

Who the other super heroes are I have no idea. Nor do I know why they make such a big deal out of tearing off the monster's pants. Very odd.

Stratfor and Pilar López de Ayala

In this Stratfor article Frriedman discusses the ongoing EU crisis as it moves on to the economic problems and bailout of Spain.

As he points out there was much less political posturing with the Spanish bailout than the earlier Greek drama. Friedman thinks this is just adjusting to the process of the crisis, rather than addressing the underlying crisis itself.

He then discusses the EU developing mechanism of further European integration via an EU Finance Minister. The problem with this approach is that it cedes national control of budgets, and with it sovereignty, to Germany's and Brussel's bureaucrats. Whether the European public will except such integration is a question that remains to be answered.

The beginning of the article is excerpted below, with a link to the entire article at the end of the excerpt.

For the article's Hot Stratfor Babe I looked to Spanish actresses and, after carefully weighing the pros and cons of each, I finally selected Pilar López de Ayala for the honor.

I don't know much about Ms de Ayala. in fact, truth be told, I don't know anything about her outside of the fact she appears to be a successful Spanish actress. I actually chose her because she had one of those long Spanish names that amuses Americans for some odd reason.


Spain, Debt and Sovereignty
By George Friedman, June 12, 2012

Eurozone countries on June 9 agreed to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to stabilize the Spanish banking system. Because the bailout dealt with Spain's financial sector directly rather than involving the country's sovereign debt, Madrid did not face the kind of demands for more onerous austerity measures in exchange for the loan that have led to political instability in countries such as Greece.

There are two important aspects to this. First, yet another European financial problem has emerged requiring concerted action. Second, unlike previous incidents, this bailout was not accompanied by much melodrama, infighting or politically destabilizing threats. The Europeans have not solved the underlying problems that have led to these periodic crises, but they have now calibrated their management of the situation to minimize drama and thereby limit political fallout. The Spanish request for help without conditions, and the willingness of the Europeans to provide it, moves the European process to a new level. In a sense, it is a capitulation to the crisis.

This is a shift in the position of Europe's creditor nations, particularly Germany. Berlin has realized that it has no choice but to fund this and other bailouts. As an export-dependent country, Germany needs the eurozone to be able to buy German products. Moreover, Berlin cannot allow internal political pressures to destabilize the European Union as a whole. For all the German bravado about expelling countries, the preservation and even expansion of the existing system remains a fundamental German interest. The cycle of threats, capitulation by creditors, political unrest and then German accommodation had to be broken. It was not only failing to solve the crisis but also contributing to the eurozone's instability. In Spain, the Germans shifted their approach, resolving the temporary problem without a fight over more austerity.

The problem with the solution is that it does nothing to deal with the larger dilemma of European sovereignty and debt. Germany is taking responsibility for solving Spain's banking problem without having any control over the Spanish banking system. If this becomes the norm in Europe, then Germany has moved from the untenable threat of expelling countries to the untenable promise of underwriting them. Europe, in other words, has accommodated itself to the perpetual crises without solving them.

In our view, the root of the problem is the struggle to align the world's second-largest exporter with a bloc of nations that ought to be enjoying positive trade balances but are instead experiencing trade deficits. Germany, however, views the root of the problem as undisciplined entitlement and social program spending that leads to irresponsible borrowing practices. Thus the Europhiles, led by Germany, don't look for solutions by redefining the European trading system, but rather by disciplining countries, particularly within the eurozone, on their spending and borrowing practices.

According to a report in German magazine Der Spiegel, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso are drafting a plan to stabilize the system. Under the purported plan, all eurozone members would be required to balance their budgets. Borrowing would be permitted only if approved by a Europe-wide finance minister, a position that would have to be created and supported by a select group of eurozone finance ministers. If approved, money could be borrowed by issuing eurobonds.

The report appears to be well grounded, with European leaders confirming that the four individuals are working on a plan (though they did not confirm the plan's details). The approach outlined in the report would attempt to resolve Europe's problems by increasing the Continent's political integration -- a concept that has been discussed extensively, particularly by the Germans and Europhiles. Given the circumstances, this would seem to be a reasonable position. If all of Europe is going to be responsible for sovereign debt issued by member countries, then the stakeholders who have the most invested in the European project must have control over borrowing. The moral hazard of de facto guarantees on borrowing without such controls is enormous.

There are two problems inherent in this approach. The first, as we have said, is the assumption that Europe's core problem is irresponsible borrowing and that if borrowing were controlled, the European problem would be solved. Irresponsible borrowing is certainly part of the problem, but the deeper issue is trade.

The European Union is built around Germany and therefore the sort of economic dynamism that Germany enjoyed in the 1950s and 1960s, when the country benefited from access to the U.S. market while retaining some protection for its own emerging industries. Eurozone countries' inability to cover debt payments stems in part from their inability to compete with Germany. Under normal circumstances, the economies of developing countries grow through exports driven by lower wage rates, but the shared currency prevents developing European countries from taking advantage of low wages. Borrowing may be too high, but Germany's dependence on exports makes it impossible for Berlin to allow a Greece or a Spain the time and space to develop critical economic sectors in the way that the United States allowed Germany to develop after World War II.

The second problem is the more serious one. The ability to manage a national budget, including the right to borrow, is a central element of national sovereignty. If the right to borrow is transferred from national governments to unelected functionaries appointed by a multinational entity, a profound transformation of democracy in Europe will take place. The European Union has seen transfers of sovereign rights from national governments and their electorates before, but none as profound as this one. Elected governments will not be able to stimulate their economies without approval of this as-yet-unnamed board, nor will they be able to undertake long-term capital expenditures based on the issuance of bonds. This board thus will have enormous power within individual countries.

Read more: Spain, Debt and Sovereignty | Stratfor

The Tasmanian Tiger - extinct or not?

The last known living Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, died in 1936 in an Australian zoo in Hobart. although it looks like a dog with an alarming large mouth full of teeth, it is actually a marsupial. It range was Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania, although by the time Europeans first encountered them they were largely confined to Tasmania.

It is thought that they were hunted to extinction. However, there are still reports of people sighting them. Several expeditions have tried to verify the sightings, but have been inconclusive. The above video starts with a brief color film of one of these later sightings of what might be a Tasmanian Tiger. The 7 black and white snippets that follow it are the only known films of the animal.

There have been attempts to extract DNA sample from museum specimens to clone a living version of a Thylacine, but so far they haven't had luck getting a good enough DNA sample for the attempt. Perhaps they'll get lucky a find a good DNA sample or, even better, maybe the animal still lives in the wild.

Vintage motorcycles

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Some nice pictures of vintage motorcycles found at La boite verte. I quite like the styling of the one above. Very futuristic looking in a retro sort of a way. 

There are more pictures after the jump, and even more at La boite verte.

Drinkin' Wine

Monday morning, start of the workweek blues
with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

 

If you need to hire a crowd

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I found the above image at Ubersuper. It is a crowd of inflatable people that's been hired to fill the bleachers for a movie. They're also used for television shows and commercials. They'll dress them up and put different wigs and hats on them so they don't draw attention as they sit in the background.

There are two main companies that rent out crowds: The Inflatable Crowd Company and Crowd in a Box. Sadly neither site had prices shown. I wonder what a crowd costs these days? By the way, both websites have galleries of more pictures.

Reading about the fake crowds for rent brought to mind Krugman's televised speech at the latest Netroots. As you can see in the picture below (via Gateway Pundit), nobody seems to have attended it. Poor Krugman, if the Netrooters were all going skip his speech the least they could have done is chip in and rent an inflatable crowd to watch his talk.

The Faking Hoaxer

I've complained before about the sorry state of UFO hoaxery these days. For example, see my post Card trick vs alien peeping toms,  As you can see if you watch the alien peeping tom video I embedded in that post, the hoax isn't much more sophisticated than the ol' 'pie pan hanging from a string' schtick from the early days.

To those of us who appreciated a good UFO hoax such bungling in this day and age of CGI and cheap video editing equipment is a travesty. So, I was pleased to run across the above video by The Faking Hoaxer. It is good to see a craftsman who respects his craft. Amusingly enough, UFO buffs accuse him of being a disinformation agent who's intent is to cover up the truth.

In the above video he shows the composites he used to build the scene, and describes how he added the shaky cam and focus problems. It's pretty amazing that the sky, and the chirping birds he recorded in his backyard, are the only real part of the video. I wondered how he got the UFO behind the trees when I first watched it.   

Advertising trade cards

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In the late 1800s businesses started printed color cards with advertisements for their goods and services. Grocers and other retailers handed them out to their customers. People collected them back then, and of course there are collectors of the old trade cards today. 

I found these sample via Google's image search, but if you're interested in seeing more The Trade Card Place has many more in their scrapbook, although unfortunately their samples are rather small in size. there are more samples after the jump.

Graphic design moves in cycles and draws inspiration from the past. We've gone through a period heavily influenced by 1930s propaganda and have moved into a 1950s retro period. Looking at these cards I wonder when and if the florid Victorian style will ever become popular again?

If you've lost your bottle opener...

...with a little ingenuity you can still get your brewski open.

 

Obama's inspiration

Stratfor and Ali MacGraw

This Stratfor article starts with Scott Stewart discussing a June 7th incident in which 4 U.S. diplomats were briefly detained by Pakistani forces.

From there Stewart examines the increasing difficulty U.S. diplomats and other personnel are having operating in Pakistan in light of the deteriorating relationship between the two countries.

It is a shame our political will dissolved so soon after 9/11. I think Pakistan is a Gordian knot that's going to have to be cut sooner or later. The longer we wait, the uglier it is going to be.

The beginning of the article is excerpted below. At the end of the excerpt is a link to the full article.

For the article's Hot Stratfor Babe, motorcades reminded me of convoys, and that naturally brought the movie Convoy to mind. Ali MacGraw is the female lead of the film, and so she gets the honor of representing the article.

Convoy is about heroic truckers and is based on a Country Western song from the tail end of the 1980s CB radio craze. If you've never seen the movie the proceeding sentence should be enough to clue you into its immense goofiness. To add another level to the strangeness, this drek was directed by Sam Peckinpah. Ka-boing!

As for Ms MacGraw, she was quite popular for a while. I always took her to be Hollywood's cleaned-up  version of a hippie girl. Her big break was the movie Love Story which, come to think of it, is probably a more ludicrous movie than Convoy. She bounced around film for a bit, and ended her acting career doing television. She's retired and living in New Mexico these days.


Tensions and Operational Challenges in Pakistan
By Scott Stewart, June 7, 2012

On June 4, four U.S. diplomats assigned to the Consulate General of the United States in Peshawar, Pakistan, were stopped at a military checkpoint and temporarily detained after refusing to allow their two vehicles to be searched. The diplomats -- including a vice consul -- were traveling in a two-vehicle motorcade and were accompanied by three Pakistani Foreign Service National (FSN) security officers.

According to media reports, the Pakistani military has charged that the diplomats had traveled to Malakand without first obtaining permission from the Pakistani government. Malakand is a city located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Peshawar in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, formerly known as the Northwest Frontier Province. Because of the problems Pakistan has had with foreign jihadists in its border badlands, all foreigners are required to obtain something called a No Objection Certificate from Pakistan's Interior Ministry before visiting areas in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Furthermore, the Pakistani press noted that the Pakistani military also objected to the Americans and their Pakistani FSNs' being armed and operating vehicles with fake license plates to disguise the diplomatic vehicles.

At its core, though, this incident is not about these small infractions. Indeed, Peshawar is the capital of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and diplomats stationed there already have received host country permission to be in the province. Additionally, U.S. diplomats assigned to Peshawar rarely venture outside of their secure compounds without a protective detail because of the extreme security threat in the city. Rather, this incident is a product of the strain in U.S.-Pakistani relations.

Motorcade Operations

The threat against U.S. diplomats in Peshawar is quite acute. In August 2008, American Consul General in Peshawar Lynne Tracy survived a small-arms attack against her motorcade. In November 2008, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Peshawar, Stephen Vance, was assassinated in an attack on his vehicle. In June 2009, Peshawar's Pearl Continental Hotel, which housed many foreign diplomats and U.N. personnel, was attacked with a massive vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), and in April 2010 the American Consulate building was the target of an elaborate VBIED plot. In May 2011, a U.S. diplomatic motorcade was attacked in Peshawar using a remotely detonated VBIED that was activated as the motorcade drove past. Jihadists also have attacked numerous Pakistani targets inside the city, including military, police and other government officials.

Given the threat in Peshawar, it makes sense that the vice consul would travel in an armed motorcade to attend a meeting -- especially in Malakand, which is even more remote than Peshawar and even more dangerous for a U.S. government employee. The use of fake vehicle tags is also logical. There are places where it is beneficial to announce one's diplomatic status, but in Peshawar, diplomatic vehicles and premises are targeted specifically for attacks. It is also an environment in which the militants possess the weaponry to engage a fully armored vehicle, so it is much better to attempt to be low key than to maintain a high-profile protective detail. American and other diplomats frequently do this in Pakistan, so it was somewhat disingenuous of the Pakistani military to raise it as a point of contention in this case.

From the configuration of the motorcade as shown on Pakistani television, it appears that it was intended to safeguard the vice consul, who was presumably riding in the rear seat of the first vehicle with a U.S. driver and the agent in charge of his protective detail riding in the vehicle's front passenger seat. The security follow-car appears to have been staffed by a U.S. shift leader riding in the front passenger seat and a Pakistani FSN driver and two FSN security officers in the rear of the vehicle.

It is not clear if the three U.S. security officers are full-time government employees or contractors. They reportedly were carrying U.S. diplomatic passports at the time of the incident, but not everyone who holds a diplomatic passport is afforded full diplomatic immunity. Still, it is likely they were at the very least members of the administrative and technical staff and that they would be afforded functional diplomatic immunity for activities related to their official duties.

This case is quite unlike the January 2011 Raymond Davis case, in which a contract security officer assigned to the U.S. Consulate General in Lahore shot and killed two men who he claims attempted to rob him. In the June 4 incident, the security officers were with the diplomat they were protecting and clearly were performing their assigned duties. This means they would be immune from prosecution for any violations the Pakistanis can cite in this incident. However, the FSN security officers could find themselves in a much worse position if the Pakistani government decides to pursue charges against them.

U.S.-Pakistani Tensions

While the June 4 incident is unlike the Davis case, it certainly is related to the growing tension between the United States and Pakistan exacerbated by the Davis shootings. The countries' relationship deteriorated further after the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan. Relations between the two countries reached an all-time low in November 2011 after U.S. airstrikes against a Pakistani military post along the country's northwestern border with Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers. In response, the Pakistani government shut down NATO's supply route into Afghanistan, asked U.S. forces to vacate an air base used to fly unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and suspended military and intelligence cooperation.

Read more: Tensions and Operational Challenges in Pakistan | Stratfor

Les Deux Guitares

Get ready for an accelerating weekend with Opa Tsupa.

 

The secret life of booth babes

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Look, I know what you're thinking, that this is just another one of my faintly tacky attempts to lure traffic to Flares via titillating subject matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, this post is a powerful expose that rips the veil off of booth babery and reveals its steamy underbelly!

The IT World article The life of a 'booth babe': high heels, long hours and leering visitors (via Slashdot), tells it all. Below are some of the sordid details about booth babery, but be warned -- what you read may shock you:

On Wednesday, Lee was holding a smartphone outside mobile chip maker Nvidia's booth, a fake tattoo of the company's name stamped below her left shoulder blade.

On average, Computex models make $100 to $170 for about 8 hours of work, she said, while models at other shows can make as little as $60. Lee decided to model at Computex for the money, after working in the modeling industry part-time for four years, in music videos and commercials. This year's show will be her last, because she's taking a job as a product manager at a biotech company that produces cosmetics and health products.

"It takes a lot of energy, because you stand for a long time," she said. During her eight hour day, Lee stands for 30 minutes holding a product, then takes a 10-minute rest and repeats the process. "You have to look happy all day and smile, but it's not that easy," she said. "It gets very tiring."

Looking happy and smiling all day? The horror. Alas, it gets worse...

Some models at Computex work full-time in the modeling industry, such as Regina Xue, 23, who was promoting PC vendor Micro-Star International by handing out plastic fans to visitors. "People think we are doing nothing and just daydreaming, but it's very difficult," she said. "You have to meet a lot of people."

She hoped that visitors would respect her profession. "This is a job for us, we just wear less," said Xue, who was in a blue mini-skirt and top. "We are doing real work."

Gadzooks! Standing, smiling, meeting people, skimpy costumes and getting gawked at by goofballs at trade shows, who could ever imagine that would be a booth babe's lot? To paraphrase Captain Renault, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that ogling is going on in here!"

The booth babe pictures are of the Computex 2010 show and are from the website Bjorn3D. There are more there if you want to research this travesty further.

Hellooooo visitors from Instapundit!

The perfect cup of coffee

The above video is the Coffee Brewing Institute's 1961 panegyric to a cup of American style coffee. I haven't had a cup of peculated coffee for years and wouldn't mind having one to remember what they taste like. I was also interested in the vacuum brewed coffee. I've never heard of that method of brewing a cup of Joe. 

Via Open Culture. 
 

My EFLI tailgating quandry

Tasty Bite to the rescue

With the first game of the Elite Football League of India (EFLI) set to kick-off on July 15th I realized I had a problem -- what food to serve at my tailgate party?

I figure that bratwurst, Buffalo chicken wings and the usual American tailgating fare don't quite fit with the Indian league. What to do? Being an extremely early American fan of the league, I decided that I can pretty much make up whatever tailgaiting traditions I want to.

With that in mind, I decide the EFLI tailgating snacks should be Indian food, or at least a reasonable facsimile of Indian food, so I tired Googling for food served at Indian cricket matches. Well, to make a long story short, not surprisingly that search didn't yield any results.

I then tried watching YouTube Indian cooking videos to get some recipes, but, while they were interesting, they were also far more involved then I cared to get into and besides I probably wouldn't be able to find all of the ingredients I needed anyway.

It seemed I was foiled, but never let it be said that I'm a quitter. It dawned on me that I have seen packaged Indian foods in the grocery store. A quick Google search led me to the Tasty Bite website. They specialize in Indian and Pan-Asian cuisine, which is just what I was looking for.

Even better, they have a recipe section and a look through their appetizer and sandwich recipes showed them to be fairly easy to make. So, I've ordered some of their packages and plan on making a sample or two which I will talk about in further posts. 

Stay tuned, and feel free to submit your own EFLI tailgate recipes if'n you have any.
     

Big Man Japan yet again

Another Big Man Japan fight scene to get you over hump day. Well, actually there is a lot more talking than fighting, but that doesn't make it any less bizarre.
 

"I think it's time for the Democrats to talk about reconciliation!!! "

All this crap because of a lost election

In Legal Insurrection's live chat about the Wisconsin recall election a commenter named Jim Temple posted the following, "I think it's time for the Democrats to talk about reconciliation!!!"

Mr. Temple is entirely correct in that sentiment. 

There is nothing wrong with fighting the good fight, but this was not a good fight: Democratic Senators precipitated a crisis by fleeing the State instead of accepting election results and doing their job; the Capital building was mobbed for days on end; teachers closed schools by skipping classes to protest; doctors filled out fraudulent excuse slips to protect protesting union members; the Union's threats and intimidation were disgusting; transparently partisan court decisions were issued from the Madison Circuit Court; and finally, enormous amounts of money was wasted on a recall over policy rather than malfeasance.

The voters of Wisconsin have spoken again, and they deserve humility from the Democrats, and an acknowledgement that the election results are legitimate, rather than more spin, more whining and more ill behavior.