Michael Vick has been signed to a two year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.

My view: He's done his time, he's entitled to re-enter society and get back to work. Football is a sport, it's not a job that requires some greater degree of purity than any other job.

Under the reinstatement plan, Vick can participate in preseason practices, workouts, meetings, and play in the Eagles' final two exhibition games. He could receive full reinstatement at any point, but Goodell said he would grant that by the weekend of Oct. 18-19 at the latest, provided Vick lives up to his end of the agreement.

According to Fox's Jay Glazer, Vick signed a one-year, $1.6-million contract with a team option for 2010. The option is for $5.2 million.

[More...]

Eunice Shriver, Founder of the Special Olympics, sister of JFK, Bobby and Ted Kennedy, and mother of California's First Lady Maria Shriver, has passed away at age 88.

From President Obama's statement:

[She was]an extraordinary woman who, as much as anyone, taught our nation — and our world — that no physical or mental barrier can restrain the power of the human spirit. Her leadership greatly enriched the lives of Special Olympians throughout the world, who have experienced the pride and joy of competition and achievement thanks to her vision.

She was an extraordinary woman. Our condolences to her family. May she rest in peace.

As women here do most mornings, Madelena Ngalya left the village around 9 a.m. one recent day and walked alone along a path through the jungle to her farm. The 56-year-old widow had been planting there for about an hour when she saw a soldier at the edge of the field. He walked toward her. "I started trembling when I saw him," she said. "I felt unable to cry, even to scream. I said, 'My son, how are you?'" The soldier asked whether she was by herself. "I said, 'I'm alone here,' she said. "He said, 'If you cry, we have many soldiers in the jungle, and when others hear you cry, they will come to you, too.' My body was like dead. Then he did what he wanted to do."

More . . .

via John Cole, this is funny. YouTube clip is dead - try here.

. . . he's a pr*ck, says Tour de France champion Alberto Contador:

Away from the spotlight of the Tour de France and back in Spain, his home country, Alberto Contador took the chance Monday to say what he really felt about his Astana teammate Lance Armstrong. “My relationship with Lance is zero,” Contador said at a news conference, one day after winning his second Tour. “He is a great rider and has completed a great race but it is another thing on a personal level, where I have never had great admiration for him and I never will.”

Not the best translation, but more or less the gist. Here is the video.Update - Lance responds - "hey pistolero, there is no "i" in "team". what did i say in March? Lots to learn. . . . Seeing these comments from AC. If I were him I'd drop this drivel and start thanking his team. w/o them, he doesn't win." Heh. Lance has lots to learn. Pi**ing contests are not going to help him. Won't help Contador either but . . .

This is an Open Thread.

This is really sad. At a factory in Taiwan where iPhones are made(Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese company) a 25 year old worker committed suicide by jumping from his apartment building because he was unable to account for one of the sixteen 4th Generation prototype iPhones entrusted to him. His job was to send the prototypes to Apple.

A newspaper says the worker was responsible for sending iPhone prototypes to Apple, and on July 13 he reported that he was missing one of the 16 fourth-generation units in his possession. The paper quotes his friends as saying security guards searched his apartment, detained him and beat him, and that he later jumped from the 12th floor of his apartment building.

Apple responds: "it's 'saddened by the tragic loss' and that its suppliers are required to treat workers with dignity and respect."

I've never fully trusted generic drugs. I know they are supposed to be the same as the real deal, but there are some that just don't seem the same to me.

In the wake of Michael Jackson's death, comes this news about diprivan, a generic form of propofol, one of the drugs he may have taken:

Two tainted lots of a generic version of a drug reportedly taken by Michael Jackson have been recalled by the drug maker.... The CDC issued a health advisory Monday, saying two lots of a generic version of the drug had tested positive for endotoxin, a contaminant. The drug maker, Teva Pharmaceuticals, voluntarily recalled the lots.

Srinivasan said the agency received 40 reports of patients around the country developing high fevers and muscle aches after being injected with the drug.

So if someone famous hadn't died while taking the drug, would we ever have found out and would there have been a recall? (Note, the article says no link has been established between Jackson's death and the tainted drug. But that's not my point.) Have there been other instances of generic drugs being tainted or recalled? [More...]

I have not written about Michael Jackson because, well, I have had nothing to say about his passing. But the Family Guy aspect of my sense of humor can not resist this:

A 2002 will by Michael Jackson, which was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, could lead to conflict over the singer’s assets between Mr. Jackson’s family and the executors he named in the will.

The five-page document, dated July 7, 2002, gives the entire estate to a family trust, and names his mother, Katherine Jackson, as legal guardian of his three children and beneficiary of the trust. If she were incapacitated or died, then the singer Diana Ross would get custody of Mr. Jackson’s children.

(Emphasis supplied.) Diana Ross? Why not Elizabeth Taylor? La Liz must be pissed . . .

Definitely speaking for me only

Gooooooool! USA! Clint Dempsey! USA 1, Brazil 0. Just 10 minutes in though. Big save by Tim Howard.

Watching this game reminds me of the late Steve Gilliard. Gilly and I "talked" soccer (by e-mail) all the time.

25 minutes, still 1-0 US. But US giving up way too much space. They have stopped going forward. Don't like it. Howard having to make save after save.

GOOOOOL!!! Donovan on a brilliant counter!! US 2, Brazil 0. At the Half - US 2, Brazil 0. Howard has been brilliant in goal.

Brazil scores in the first minute of the 2nd - 2- 1 USA, 30 minutes of regular time left. Brazil threatening to equalize almost constantly. In fact, Us gets a break, ball was across the line but goal for Brazil not signalled. US completely on their heels.

Howard saves the day again at the 70 minute mark. Still 2-1 US. Equalizer. Kaka on a great run. Rebound knocked in.It seemed inevitable. 2-2.

The collapse is complete. Brazil scores off a corner. 3-2 Brazil. FINAL.

Whether a baseball player whose exceptional career was tainted by scandal deserves to be in the Hall of Fame is a question that spawns lengthy (preferably beer-fueled) debate. The perceived justice or injustice of Pete Rose's banishment from the game -- hence from Hall of Fame consideration -- for betting on baseball (and then lying about it before admitting it) sparks animated argument between those who believe he deserves recognition for his on-field achievements regardless of his off-field failings and those who view him as undeserving because his gambling jeopardized the game's integrity.

More recent controversies involve players who admittedly or allegedly used performance-enhancing drugs, a rules violation that is more likely than Rose's compulsive betting to affect the outcome of games. Ryne Sandberg recently contributed to the drama by opining that Sammy Sosa, his former teammate, shouldn't join him in the Hall of Fame.

[more ...]

AT&T is giving an inch in the new iPhone upgrade wars. Now, if you spend $99 a month or more (pdf), you should "generally" be eligible to upgrade after 12 to 18 months.

One big problem: They've sold out of the new phones. But they say starting tomorrow, they may have a few more. You can check your upgrade status starting tomorrow here.

If you qualify for the best upgrade pricing, you will pay $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model--these are the same prices AT&T will charge new customers signing up for a two-year contract. If you don't fall into either of those categories, you may be eligible for what AT&T calls its "early upgrade pricing": $399 and $499 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively.

Seeking an unprecedented jockey triple crown (on different horses), Calvin Borel will be back on Mine That Bird, the Kentucky Derby winner, as the connections to Preakness winning filly Rachel Alexandra decided to not run her in the Belmont.

Andrew Beyer's take - he likes Dunkirk, arguing that Mine That Bird's come from behind/Silky Sullivan style is not favored by the Belmont Park track. We shall see.

UPDATE - Summer Bird wins. Mine That Bird and Borel finish third.