Slacker Sunday

Feet in the clouds, head firmly on the ground

(photo ©2014 Weldon Berger)

Rudy Giuliani has an honorary knighthood. Kevin Spacey, too. Billy Graham, Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf, two former presidents-hence-war criminals. Some of these, she’d have done better knighting corgis.

She was queen for 70 years, so this doesn’t really seem headline-worthy.

“Discount Goebbels” or “Lying Nazi Homunculus?” We report, you decide.

Buttcoin, for the rest of us.

This seems like a pretty good deal at about $45 per person per night, in downtown Tokyo.

Shinjuku’s justly famous 3D billboard features Pokemon cats for a bit.

(Here’s a video of last year’s 3D house cat.)

Hosting the Olympics is mostly a bad deal for cities but a great deal for vendors and certain others.

A bribery scandal engulfing last summer's pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympic Games has thrown a dark cloud over Sapporo's 2030 bid and raised fresh questions in Japan about hosting the Olympics again.

Former Tokyo 2020 executive Haruyuki Takahashi was arrested on suspicion of bribery in August and more allegations were leveled against him last week in a widening investigation into corruption at the heart of the Games.

The scandal comes at a bad time for city of Sapporo, which is bidding to host the 2030 Winter Olympics.

The Sapporo city council voted against holding a referendum on hosting the 2030 Olympics because, they said, their polling showed 52% in favor, so why bother.

Former Senator and current NASA chief Bill Nelson accused China of stealing U.S. space technology and our first thought was “oh, no wonder Artemis couldn’t get off the ground.”

Vantablack is just amazing. One day, NBA basketballs will be coated with it.

(Musical contributors to this post include The Hogtown Allstars, “Hog Wild;” Flesh for Lulu, “Best Of;” and The Suburbs, “Poets Party.” We welcome music recommendations of any stripe or no stripes at all; please drop them in the comments if you have some.)