Todas las mascotas de Mundiales.

30.05.2010 - Calígula - En 1966 Inglaterra incorpora a Willie (león), elemento de marketing y consumo, como primera mascota mundial. México continúa la línea diferenciándose con Juanito, para 1970, la primera mascota humana de sombrero originario. Los alemanes duplicaron la apuesta creando a Tip y Tap (las dos Alemanias?) para 1974. Los argentinos (1978) no se esmeraron demasiado y copiaron, en forma de Gauchito, al Juanito mexicano del 70. España (pos franquista) presentó a su lamentable Naranjito para 1982. México se vio obligado a cambiar de mascota para 1986: Pique (un ají) salió elegido entre mas de 600 diseños. Los italianos crearon a Ciao para 1990 cambiando un poco el concepto. Estados Unidos presentó a Striker (perro) para 1994 (Warner Bross). Footix (gallo) representó los días de Francia 98 (su nombre salió de una encuesta con casi 20.000 opiniones) y fue diseñado por Fabrice Pialot. Los Spheriks de Corea y Japón llegaron de Atmozone, un planeta imaginario en el que se juega a un deporte similar al fútbol llamado Atmoball y donde existe una academia en la que estos seres aprenden a crear una buena atmósfera deportiva. Ato, director de la academia, y los alumnos Nik y Kaz viajaron hasta el Mundial 2002 para velar por el cumplimiento de la deportividad en el terreno de juego. Y Goleo VI viene a suplantar a los viejos Tip y Tap del 74 para Alemania 2006, bajo diseño de Henson Company, creador de los personajes de Plaza Sésamo. El león tenía una pelota inteligente llamada Pillie y su melena estaba hecha de pelos de llamas criadas en una estancia de Las Acequias, Río Cuarto, Córdoba (Argentina).

Para Sudafrica 2010: Andries Odendaal (Ciudad del Cabo) creó a Zakumi (leopardo): “ZA”, por Sudafrica, y “kumi”, una traduccion de “diez” en varios idiomas africanos.

Aldercreature Brainstorm

Finally, a cause that we can get behind without reservation!

• Hispanic aldermen pushing for a boycott of all things Arizona to protest that state's controversial immigration law might hit a red light.

  Chicago's 189 red-light cameras were installed by Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems, which put in the cameras and road sensors. It also operates the software and mails out the $100 tickets along with photographic evidence of the alleged red-light running.

  In 2008, the Daley administration signed a five-year, $52 million contract with Redflex that cut the cost of each camera system from $100,000 to $24,500. It also included maintenance for cameras installed after Oct. 22, 2008.

  But the "proprietary nature of the technology" kept the city from including operations and maintenance for the 136 original camera systems. That's why Redflex has a separate five-year, $32 million contract just to maintain those 136.

We'd love to see these aldercreatures attempt to void a signed, sealed and delivered contract. And a boycott that would only cut Chicago money. Brilliant! And once again, the left-tards on the City Council demonstrate they haven't even read the 20-page Arizona law that only reflects United States law that has been in existence since World War II.

These people are morons.

Judges Re-Assigned

Fox News investigation revealed judges leaving early:

• Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans has reassigned four judges in response to a FOX Chicago News/Better Government Association investigation into courtroom work habits.

  The investigation found the judges leaving their assigned courtrooms well before the 4pm out time ordered by Evans two years ago. One judge, Gloria Chevere, was found soaking up the sun in her backyard at 2pm on a day when her court call ended early.

  "I do not want any unacceptable behavior of a few judges to undermine the credibility and integrity of our entire system of justice," Evans said in a statement.

We have to wonder, only four? Either Fox wasn't trying that hard or the BGA is operating, like everyone else, shorthanded. If the courts are that underutilized, it's time to cut the number of judges and courtrooms.

A Mystery!

Now remember, you can't use Department resources - they track those things and you could get in trouble. But maybe someone knows what the deal is with this:

• So, considering all of this, we’ve noticed a BMW parked illegally in Boystown every Friday and Saturday night for the past several months — and it never gets ticketed for parking in a yellow curbed no parking zone.

• But, two weeks ago, we witnessed two CPM meter maids working Halsted and saw the two approach the BMW, with one of them clearly being a trainee. The lead meter maid looked directly at the BMW, so that shot down the theory CPM can’t see that car. It did not vanish before our very eyes into BizarroWorld. The trainee started to write a ticket for being parked in the no parking yellow curb zone, but the other CPM agent stopped him, and we clearly heard the woman say to her subordinate, “No, you can’t ticket THAT car, stop filling that out”.

• “I know that should get a ticket, but she won’t let me. I’m not allowed to write up that car, but I asked her, and she won’t tell me why,” is what the trainee told us. “I don’t know why I’m not allowed to write up that car, but she punched the license number into her box and it came up DO NOT WRITE”.

So the million dollar question is, "How do we get on that list in the parking ticket printer?" Imagine the connection there. Go read the article for all the details.

Serial Killer Caught?

Wow, we talk about a bunch of bodies being found in abandoned buildings over the past few years, point out that a serial killer may be on the loose on the south side again and 10 days later, there's DNA matches and an arrest:

• A DNA match has led to the arrest of a man police have called the No. 1 suspect in the strangulation murders of three women in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side.

  The 24-year-old suspect, who lives on the South Side, was arrested Thursday outside his home, police said. As of late Saturday morning, the man has not been charged.

Not charged? We heard Anita's people want to interview the victims before approving charges. In any event, sounds like a good job by the CPD members involved.

Clearance Rate "Dips"

The article limits itself to a single mention of the Chicago clearance rate, instead lumping all of Cook County into a single category and comparing it to others:

• In Cook County, only about one third of murders since 1980 have been solved, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of crime records provided by the FBI. Police solved only 35 percent of the murders in Chicago in 2008, the FBI records show.

  "We'd expect that -- with more police officers, more scientific tools likes DNA analysis and more computerized records -- we'd be clearing more homicides now with more resources," said Bill Hagmaier, executive director of the International Homicide Investigators Association and retired chief of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. "But the clearance rates have fallen drastically."

"more police officers"? In what fantasy-land is this former feeb living? We're seeing layoffs across the board and hiring freezes to keep manpower down. And in just the past three years, the CPD alone is short around what? 400 detectives? And there hasn't been a class promoted off the existing list in over 2.5 years. We won't even go into the hatchet being taken to overtime budgets.

That clearance rate isn't going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

Planteles argentinos en los Mundiales.

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