Uncle Sam

I'm back after a week of pain killers, elevated leg and ice machine... Yes that's right the knee surgery went well and my money wasn't that worth it because I was sedated for only 17 min... one would expected that in a $15K surgery they would allow us the benefit of at least be stoned for a little longer, right?...

Anyway, this post is not about the knee. If you follow the financial markets you know that yesterday the Dow finally went over 13K points again... this might be a big deal if it holds there... but I guess president Bush couldn't wait to celebrate. I couldn't find a YouTube video with this but CNN has a very good one... you just have to bear through the initial 10 secs of advertising. Check it out here.

Writing about the US again also reminded me the Uncle Sam story... For those of you that don't know Uncle Sam, which some say was interpreted from the U.S. written in some meat boxes, was actually Sam Wilson a meet supplier from Troy, NY that during the War of 1812 shipped meat to the soldiers in barrels labelled US. As a result the soldiers started using the name Uncle Sam for US and latter in 1961 the congress passed a resolution stating that: "Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives that the Congress salutes Uncle Sam Wilson of Troy, New York, as the progenitor of America's National symbol of Uncle Sam."

Though no one is sure of how much of this common folklore is true, Uncle Sam became US' symbol, and has statues and imagery all over the country. How much of a dancer Uncle Sam was... is still unknown, what is known is that Uncle Bush likes to dance and doesn't waste an opportunity to do it. (Youtube is a good source for his dancing moves including some samba playing in Brazil)

Sexta-feira 13

Sabiam disto?... Confesso que nunca tinha pensado no assunto... O fenomeno da sexta-feira 13 nao e comum a todos os paises "ocidentais"... sempre pensei que mudasse significativemente com as culturas e crencas... mas afinal muda ate mesmo entre paises europeus...

Segundo a wikipedia este fenomeno e tipico de paises que falem Ingles, Alemao, Polaco ou Portugues... enquanto que em Espanha ou na Grecia o fenomeno semelhante e o da 3a-feira 13... Sera mesmo verdade?!...

Ja agora se sao supersticiosos fiquem avisados que voltamos a ter uma sexta-feira 13 em Julho... mas vai dai podem sempre ir passar o fim de semana a Espanha... ai esta uma utilizacao de que nunca me tinha lembrado para uma fronteira entre paises: afastar supersticoes!

Most Admired Company

Marta's company was ranked #1 Most Admired Company in the U.S. Engineering and Construction Industry. This study was conducted by the Fortune 500 team and Peter Kiewit Son's scored equal or above to many other #1s in other industries. Kiewit is also consistently ranked as one of the top 10 contractors in the U.S. by Engineering New-Record.

Congrats Marta!