World Cup - Ghana v. Serbia. Serbia should win.

Slovenia, the USA's next opponent, beat Algeria 1-0.

Open Thread.

Open Thread+. I'm still not thinking much about politics. Besides the World Cup and a critical Game 5 in the NBA Finals, the most intriguing story in sports is conference re-alignment in college football.

The Big Ten started it all when its commissioner Jim Delaney declared that the Big Ten would expand last December. Why would the Big Ten expand? (Understand that this is all about money and nothing else. One of the funniest aspects of the story is all the talk about "academics" being a consideration. Yeah, right.) Two words - Notre Dame. The Big Ten has coveted Notre Dame forever and in fact, Notre Dame is a good fit for the Big Ten. And with its Big Ten TV network, the Big Ten now actually offers Notre Dame financial advantages (Once upon a time, Notre Dame's NBC deal was the envy of college football, not anymore. All Big Ten and SEC teams make more TV money than Notre Dame. Delaney wanted Notre Dame. But what he got was . . . Nebraska? Not seeing the money in that one. More . .

The association football starts early tomorrow, with Greece facing South Korea at 7 am on the East Coast and Argentina facing Nigeria at 9:30am.

The big one for us is at 2 pm - USA v. England.

I like Greece, Nigeria and England. More on these games at Sportsleft.

3 WC games on tap tomorrow. More group and game previews will be provided before 7 AM tomorrow.

Open Thread.

Open Thread. I'm watching the World Cup.

The TL kid and I are headed up to Aspen for the annual NORML drug law conference. There's live coverage this year. We're staying with Anita at Owl Farm. The TL kid gets to sleep in Johnny Depp's room. (No, he won't be there, it's called that because it's the room he always slept in when he visited Hunter.) Here's the speaking agenda . I'll be speaking Saturday on new forms of electronic surveillance.

I'll have my iPad and my laptop and will be checking in, and maybe posting occasionally. (I will be following developments in Peru with Joran Van der Sloot but won't be able to devote as much time to them.)

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Guess what? People disagree. Let's do it civilly. How about a non-bickering Open Thread?

Open Thread.

More thread.

The runoff election for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Arkansas is today. Bill Halter appears to be the favorite over incumbent Blanche Lincoln.

The Celtics host the Lakers in Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight. The series is tied 1-1.

The World Cup starts in just 3 days.

Open Thread.

There was a big explosion here just before dinner as a power sub-station blew about 1/2 mile away.

An Xcel power substation near National Jewish Hospital and Rose Medical Center exploded about 6:30 p.m. knocking out power to more than 37,000 customers, causing traffic jams and bringing curious spectators out across much of east Denver.

The explosion sent flames shooting 70 feet into the sky, said Denver Fire Lt. Phil Champagne. At 7:30 p.m. the flames were under control, Champagne said.

The TL kid was driving down the street from it and said there were two really loud booms and then flames and black smoke shot up really high in the sky. I was on the phone and didn't even hear it, but my power has been going on and off all night.

This is the second time in three weeks Xcel has had major problems. At least I have my iPad with its 10 hour battery and 3G for when the wi-fi goes out.

In any event, as I check on the news I've missed, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Reburied workwise.

Open Thread.

Update (TL): I'm off to the jail. I'll miss Charlie Sheen's plea coverage at 4pm MT. Last night's post with what's expected to happen is here.