Week of 2007-03-03 17:00 to 2007-03-10 16:59

Partly it’s the stirring musical score; partly, the memorable footage of animals and plants in unfamiliar, dramatic shots.

Whatever the case, the trailer for the upcoming 11-part Planet Earth mini-series on the Discovery Channel gives me chills every time I see it.

More than five years in the making, PLANET EARTH redefines blue-chip natural history filmmaking and continues the Discovery Channel mission to provide the highest quality programming in the world. The 11-part series will amaze viewers with never-before-seen animal behaviors, startling views of locations captured by cameras for the first time, and unprecedented high-definition production techniques. Award-winning actress and conservationist Sigourney Weaver is the series’ narrator.

PLANET EARTH airs on consecutive Sundays from March 25 through April 22, 2007, on Discovery Channel and in high definition on Discovery HD Theater.

Even better, they’ve created a Google Earth tour with video clips from locations around the world their crews visited.

I have had occasion in the past to fall in love with the CLI email client “mutt” — last year, in fact, it wound up being a great resource while I made various server consolidation and administration moves and was spending a lot of time in term windows.

There are several guides out there for setting up mutt, but it’s always nice to find a newly updated one with the latest info. Via an article on macosxhints comes this great linsec.ca guide: “Using mutt on OS X” by vdanen. He covers everything from installation, building/compiling, and the usual setup stuff, then moves on to what have been deal-killers for folks in the past — Address Book integration, attachment handling, improved threading, and other coolness. Definitely recommended.

Myself, I’m holding out to see how Leopard’s improvements work out. “Stationery” and a “media browser” don’t bode well. ;) Notes and to-dos are intriguing, however.

Sounds like I’m not the only one considering the coolness factor of Chivas USA versus the Galaxy’s approach.

Let the Galaxy, with its English superstar go and chase the dream of becoming a global brand. As for Chivas, it will be content — for now at least — with wooing and winning the local market. “We’re really focused on being L.A.’s team,” said Javier Leon, Chivas USA’s chief executive.[…]

There is a firm belief among Chivas USA officials that the Galaxy has dropped the ball when it comes to Southern California’s Latino fans and that miscalculation has opened the door for Chivas.

The Galaxy, whose alumni include such stellar players as Jorge Campos, Mauricio Cienfuegos, Eduardo Hurtado, Carlos Hermosillo and Carlos Ruiz, no longer has a single recognized Latino player on its roster.

By contrast, the current Chivas USA roster shows players of American, Mexican, Honduran, Colombian, English, Puerto Rican and Salvadoran extraction. Demographically, Chivas USA is far more reflective of Los Angeles and will keep drumming home that fact.

“I wouldn’t say they’re losing Los Angeles because of Beckham,” Cue said of the Galaxy. “I think Beckham is a great asset. I think they’re losing Los Angeles because Chivas came here [in 2005] and is doing what people wanted done.

“Now there’s another team providing the passion that the fans like.”

The first and last professional soccer team I rooted for actively and on a regular basis hasn’t played a game since 1981. That would be the Dallas Tornado of the also-defunct North American Soccer League (NASL). The Tornado had one NASL championship, in 1971.

Much like basketball — despite the woeful expansion Dallas Mavericks at the time (founded in 1980) — soccer didn’t garner much attention or affection compared to the Texas Rangers and especially the Dallas Cowboys. Football was and is king in Texas.

Times have changed, and there are now much-loved basketball (the powerhouse Mavs!), soccer (FC Dallas), and even hockey (the Stars) teams running around the Metroplex.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and Southern California has been blessed with first one and now two professional soccer teams, not to mention a beautiful soccer stadium and complex. And with my recent catching up on the global game’s history and current state (not to mention attending a Chivas USA game last season), I’ve been pondering adopting one of them as a Favorite Soccer Team.

Alex is leaning toward adopting Chivas USA, especially since the Beckham announcement. I had been considering the Galaxy, partly because they’ve been around longer, and partly due to Landon Donovan, who’s a Redlands native. With Beckham and accompanying media frenzy, I’m beginning to have my doubts.

Doing some research on the parent Club Deportivo Guadlajara Chivas team, it reads as if they are kind of the Yankees of the Mexican Primera División. And you can say I’m not a big Yankees fan. ;) A better analogy might be Manchester United, I suppose.

However, I do dig the goats, and if the rumored move to Pomona comes true, that might make the decision for me.

So for now, I think I’ll just follow the news and maybe try to make a game or two. Ask again later. Besides, there are other important things to keep me occupied.

Twenty-two minutes of amazing goals:

Via Soccer y Fútbol