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And staying with cartoons, I had also posted the opening sequence of Mazinger Z, also known in the US as Tranzor Z. Turns out there is an excellent and detailed article on Wikipedia about it.

"The series lasted for 92 episodes, making it the longest running anime mecha series in the genre. It remains the touchstone of the Super Robot anime genre and its influence is still felt today.
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This is often interpreted as the root of later series like Go-Lion (Voltron – Defender of the Universe), the Transformers, and the giant robots in the Super Sentai Series (the basis for Power Rangers).
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Aside from Japan and most countries in the Far East, Mazinger found an audience in many parts of the world, as it was translated to many languages. In Europe, Mazinger Z was televised in Spain and Italy, with astounding success...In 1984, the show was syndicated in the United States under the title Tranzor Z from 3-B Productions. Unlike the generally faithful treatment other countries gave their versions of Mazinger Z, 3-B's version of Tranzor Z was heavily edited and shortened to 65 episodes, with a modified storyline that was altered from the original. The "Americanization" of Mazinger Z for US consumption was done because of the strict standards in regards to content for children's programming at the time -- a large percentage of the action scenes were deemed unacceptable by Standards and Practices. In other words, Mazinger Z was too violent for US television -- the original version contained numerous scenes of mass hysteria, urban destruction, gratuitous violence, cold-blooded homicide, sadistic torture, gruesome dismemberments, violent death, and other acts of wanton chaos. "

Days ago I posted a clip from a cartoon series from the late 70's because I remebered it and liked their intro song. I didn't realize the show, created by the revolutionary French animation studio Procidis, had been broadcasted in so many countries, including Japan and Canada. Of course, as I had speculated, it did not play in the US because of issues with teaching evolution, crazy.

Met a few friends for drinks last night, fun. Got up fairly late this morning. I may go out to the sushi buffet on 33rd for lunch, hungry.

Just talked to my parents a bit ago, they are at the beach apartment, nice.

BTW, the site experienced a mini-outage last evening, about 10 to 15 min max, as I was migrating DNS to my new hosting provider. Should be all good now.

Rafa Nadal beat Federer last weekend in Montecarlo, and Canas this weekend in Barcelona, he has not lost in clay since some time in 2005. 72 consecutive victories. Interesting article about what makes him so great on ESPN - What Makes Nadal Unbeatable on Clay?. A sample paragraph below.

"Nadal's intensity is his greatest asset. From the minute he walks on the court, he compels, bouncing during the coin toss, focusing through the warmup, his eyes narrowing like a hawk. Fans have come to love the way Nadal throws himself into every point. If his clay-court success has its technical roots in the attrition-based manner of Guillermo Vilas and Thomas Muster, his comfort in the cauldron summons up the likes of Jimmy Connors. Add to that the unidentifiable X-factor that made Bjorn Borg so popular, and Nadal is one of the most charismatic tennis players of the last 20 years."