Sat in the stands along the third base line last night, watching the Durham Bulls defeat the Richmond Braves 5-2. Deep blue sky and 82 degrees when we got there, 79 when we left at the top of the ninth. Fastest pitch was 91 mph. Our guy threw 81mph most of the time.

The big excitement came at third base in the fourth inning. As Mike Potter reports, “The Bulls had a chance for a big inning in the fourth, but a baserunning mistake killed it. With one out and Brooks Badeaux on second and Lombard at first, Jason Smith singled to right. Bulls manager Bill Evers held Badeaux after a big turn at third, and Badeaux was caught in a rundown with Lombard continuing to third. With both runners standing on third, Lombard was tagged out, and Badeaux was then tagged out after leaving the bag. That precipitated an animated argument from Evers, who was ejected by plate umpire Don Goller after covering up home plate.” Actually, Evers kicked dirt, with great child-like spite, on home plate after he was ejected.

The US Treasury is flooding the market with debt sales as it seeks to fund the booming budget deficit. As the Washington Post reported, the government has revived 3 year note sales, having stopped selling this type of security in 1998. Further, “five-year notes, which used to be sold quarterly, are going to be sold monthly, while the 10-year notes, which have been sold quarterly, will now be sold eight times a year.”

In all, the government will sell $230 billion in the second half of the year, more than any other six month period in the nation’s history.

Interest rates are headed higher. This isn’t rocket-science, folks. When supply rises and demand stays steady, prices fall. Lower bond, note and bill prices mean higher interest rates. And higher interest rates means… lower housing prices.

As mortgage rates rise in tandem with US treasury rates, mortgage demand is swooning and may soon be comatose.

A smart Democratic challenger to Bush would be banging this issue hard.

Ben Hammersley gave us a nice plug in the Guardian, calling Blogads “a very simple way to sell space on your site.” And Nic Howell gave us a good mention as he chewed on the nuances of thin media in New Media Age. Unfortunately, it’s password protected.

Ironically, while Nic quoted me correctly, I’m wrong. Here’s the relevant extract: “Blogads customers are typically entrepreneurs, says Copeland. ‘Testimonials from advertisers say we have exactly the 500 or 5,000 people they’re trying to reach,’ he says. But despite opening up a new channel to customers, Copeland hasn’t had interest from ad agencies. ‘They’re part of the whole ecosystem of people which we’re trying to disintermediate,’ he says.”

OK, I’ll eat those words: we’ve seen some good interest from ad agencies in recent weeks and are realizing Blogads can fit well in their ecosystem.

Entrepreneurship is like ice-sculpting, right?

We’ve moved to Chapel Hill. Whew. Unfortunately, my new cable provider, Time Warner, seems to have been swallowed by a worm, so I’m on dialup and accessing the Internet only intermittently until cable is live.

Buyers of ads above $25 can now pay for their blogads purchases with their credit card. PayPal will remain an option as well. For a discussion on the rationale and a few of our users’ opinion, please see this recent posting by Henry.

Log in, go to your adstrip manage page and check out the last two columns in each row. You will see how much you can expect for each ad sold. If we have paid you already, the payment date is also shown. To access payment information for ads that have expired, look for the link at the bottom of the ad manage page.
Yes, there is no aggregation of past earnings. Yes, we are not adding up how much we will transfer you next month. These are to come. Treat this little development as a first step.

I’ll be on the road for the next two weeks, passing through DC, Black Mountain and Chapel Hill. If you need anything urgently, please contact Miklos in Hungary. His number, from the US, is 011 361 328-0602.

WSJ.com: “Even the biggest marketers are struggling with the tough economy, the sharp increase in ad clutter and audience fragmentation. Now some see boutique agencies as more nimble — and cheaper — alternatives. Sun, for example, has used J. Walter Thompson for the past three years to craft its ads, but the company is eager to cut costs and believes smaller agencies may help it generate more buzz with its advertising.” Ahh, so that is why we’re getting calls. 🙂

We’ve identified a complex bug in our ad expiry processes, which means that some ads have not expired quickly enough. We originally misdiagnosed the problem. Net result: free page impressions for some advertisers. Most of the ads are fixed and the rest should be fixed by tomorrow. Thank you to Atrios, Moxie, David and Hugh for flagging the bug.

Great database of old advertising. Ads are the economy’s diary. And speaking of advertising, Time Out New York now has ads on our New York blogs. This is our first metro-specific order. Expect lots more.