Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 BP deploys new cap to finally seal rogue well

by Mira Oberman, AFP

35 mins ago

Say what you like about Lance, he’s been more right and honest about his Tour than many.  His first ‘crash’ didn’t amount to much, more an off course.  Losing a wheel at the bottom of the Col de la Ramaz is the kind of thing that sets you back 11:45, 13:26 from the lead.

Within 2 minutes of each other are Evans and Schleck and Contador and they’d all have to get hit by a bus which hardly ever happens.

So now’s the time to think about your loyalty to the Islanders and this sport we call Hockey with it’s cups of Stanley.  I contend Le Tour is at least as compelling as curling or golf with the additional benefit of lasting 3 weeks covering the All-Star break.

It has it’s hypnotoad charms, because it’s practically on auto-loop and only the last half hour or so matters (you get plently of repeats of the NASCAR crashes) and you can really loose track of which day you are watching if you don’t pay close attention.

Plus there is that Deadhead vibe from the crowd.

In an ideal world you’d now root for the team of you fallen hero, but because the sponsorship changes are harder to follow than those in Formula 1 it’s hard to develop the kind of UPC driven Ferrari red loyalty that even so hardly makes a dent on the collective conciousness of the US.

Hear about that “football” game?  The score was 1 to nothing.

Relative to the sport, this is a Jordan moment, a sacrifice to the volcano.  I suppose we’ll get used to entropy, we always do.

235 Stories served.  33 per day despite difficulties.

Including being frozen out of the site last night for no particular reason.  Fortunately I was caught up for the most part, but stacked up for today are my ruminations on the world of business and speculations about Le Tour.

All of which I will get to when I do.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.  It should be a Sunday morning feature.

I’d be remiss if I did not highlight a film of note- Harold Lloyd’s last silent, Speedy.  On Turner Classic of course.

(A) young man trying to save New York’s last horse-drawn streetcar line.

You can DVR and watch it later.

Less worthy things-

• ABC Family– Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (much easier not in 3D)
• ESPN– Cubs @ Dodgers
• AMC– Pearl Harbor (ouch)
• History– Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, Top Shot
• Discovery– Mythbusters

Eye gougingly bad things (shame on you)-

• E!– Justin Bieber: My World
• FX– Alien vs. Predator, AVPR: Aliens vs Predator—Requiem

Toon is having Unnatural History if you’re trying to get into it and then at 10:30 Adult Swim will debut Children’s Hospital.  Disney has a repeat of Phineas and Ferb’s “Hawaiian Vacation” at 10.

Later-

New Boondocks @ 11:30.  Dino Stamatopoulos’ new project @ 12:30.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 29 Top Stories.

1 BP ‘pleased’ with progress of oil fix mission

by Mira Oberman, AFP

Sun Jul 11, 12:46 pm ET

So, everyone is a lot more sanguine about this than I am.

I look at numbers like 3:16 after 2:30 and think- that’s 45 seconds I’ll never get back, but all is good say the analysts.  It was a great ride by Chavanel and he has nearly 2 minutes on everyone else too.

If he keeps this lead through the Alps he could hang on to it for a while (defined as up to 6 days by one commentator) which is quite possible if we get a string of Sprints, but most don’t think it will last.  Armstrong predicts a ‘Selection’ today with the road literally melting under the heat and that things could break up as early as the first 9 mile climb up the Col de la Ramaz and it’s 10% gradients.

The names you’ll get used to hearing after today in addition to Contador will be Cadel Evans (last year’s runner up) and Andy Schleck.

Today’s 118 mile ride between Station des Rousses and Morzine-Avoriaz has climbs of 4, 4, 1, 3, and 1 severity with an overall downhill run through the first 2/3rds of the course.  Tomorrow will be a recovery day so everyone can stiffen up and then another day of Alps on Tuesday.

In other sports the 2010 World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands @ 2:30 pm on ABC and Formula 1 @ noon on Fox (Silverstone, should be a Red Bull romp).  Coverage of Le Tour starts at 7:30 am on Vs.

Well, since I’m skipping the night when I’d normally be getting dog therapy I thought I’d at least mention America’s Cutest Dog and World’s Ugliest Dog Competition on Animal Planet.  Frankly I’m highly suspicious of the motivations of both, I don’t think animals should be framed by human perceptions of beauty.

They drink out of toilets, how cute can they be?

• AMC– Blood Work
• ESPN– World Cup Prime Time (Germany v. Uruguay)
• ABC Family– Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• TBS– Men in Black
• Turner Classic– My Darling Clementine, Sergeant Rutledge
• Discovery– Dirty Jobs
• TNT– Lifelock.com 400

Scary Movie is hard to get away from but I advise you to try.  History has The Lost Pyramid and Egypt: Engineering an Empire, both really good documentaries if you haven’t already seen them.

Later-

Boondocks, 2 Episodes.

• ABC Family– Van Helsing
• FX– Alien vs. Predator

SNL from 3/13/10, Jude Law, Pearl Jam.

GitS: SAC 2nd Gig, Fabricate Fog, Embarrassment.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Work begins to replace cap on ruptured Gulf oil well

by Mira Oberman, AFP

1 hr 36 mins ago