Conundrum

This piece is from ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper found via Red State ABC News’ Sunlen Miller today asked Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, how he could “rail against Countrywide Financial Corp as an example of insiders and today’s economy while your VP search is headed by someone who got questionable loans from Countrywide?” (This [...]

“We’re told that Bearpont Morgan Chase is moving over a third (50/133) of its incoming IBD class over to the commercial bank. Apparently HR has been telling the demoted that their sentence will last one year, at which time they’ll (hopefully) be brought back over to IBD.” -(Not Quite) Layoffs (But Considered By Some To Be [...]

There is an absurd notion floating (or perhaps burning wild-fire-like) throughout the anti-war camp that Iraq is some invention of the Bush Administration.  Now, while I have professed many times to having been a critic of our entrance into Iraq due to what I perceived as poor (and avoidable) timing, I take offense at the [...]

There is an absurd notion floating (or perhaps burning wild-fire-like) throughout the anti-war camp that Iraq is some invention of the Bush Administration.  Now, while I have professed many times to having been a critic of our entrance into Iraq due to what I perceived as poor (and avoidable) timing, I take offense at the [...]

There is an absurd notion floating (or perhaps burning wild-fire-like) throughout the anti-war camp that Iraq is some invention of the Bush Administration.  Now, while I have professed many times to having been a critic of our entrance into Iraq due to what I perceived as poor (and avoidable) timing, I take offense at the [...]

There is a FABULOUS article that came out in the September 2007 issue of the ‘New Yorker’, called The Colic Conundrum. I have read it in it’s hard copy format but didn’t realize it’s available for free online (click on link above). You need to sign up for a free account to access the article, but [...]

It all starts in the contact center. That’s my contention anyway. When you look for the obvious launch point for unified communications in the enterprise, it has to be the contact center. Almost all discussions about UC in the enterprise include a mention of Presence, the UC concept that provides users with an overview of the [...]

The Phillies might talk long-term deal with Hamels down the road. But, the Phillies general manager said, “right now, it isn’t going to happen.” Gillick said he is wary of giving out long-term deals, particularly one like the Brewers gave Braun. “If at some point, if [Hamels is] performing to the level, you’re going to [...]

I have been thinking…    I haven’t blogged much lately, because I have been shy about sharing some of the harder things that have been going on in my life.  I’ve been telling myself that no one would read my blog if I was too honest.  Nobody wants to hear about that stuff, right?    On the [...]

One of the biggest decisions that a person will have in the modern world when it comes to their business is whether they want to go online or offline. This actually applies just as much to established small business as it does to business that is just getting started because whereas a starting business [...]

There would be a time when I couldn't wait to vote Conservative. With both my head and my heart! The very idea of voting Labour filled me with a shiver. After all, they were a bit "commie", wanted nationalisation, were into pip-sqeaking taxation, and generally were economic trouble. It was a no brainer for me.Then two things happened. The Berlin wall collapsed, so who were now the socialists, who were now the anti-capitalist campaigners? And along came Blair, a political hybrid with a "well, yeah" response to all matters in his way. We now have a three party set-up in a two-party system.It was all so easy when it was just Conservative and Labour. Straight fights were the norm. The Liberals came in just for the ride. They had to do deals with the Conservatives in Bolton and Huddersfield jus

So here's a question that's been floating around for years: Why does Pinellas County have so relatively few charter schools? Sunday's St. Petersburg Times story didn't try to answer that question, but it did note that the Hillsborough school district...

Can anyone tell me where exactly the 'Food Miles' concept originated? Wherever it was, it's been a stunning PR success, if the result when you google 'food miles' is anything to go by - listing upon listing of people all greeting the idea as if it's the answer to the maiden's prayer. It's all so simple: climate change is a bad thing; climate change is caused by carbon emissions; planes emit carbon; food transported by planes are therefore responsible for carbon emissions; therefore food transported by air is A Bad Thing. Aha! So, we can feel better about ourselves and our contribution to the general good if we forswear bananas and pineapples (even though they are so tantalisingly cheap) and opt instead for Scottish Raspberries and Asparagus from the Mendips.....The problem with that, is

It’s a Saturday night, the restaurant is full, the foodservice kitchen is humming. Employees are focused on serving their customers as quickly as possible. There’s not much time now for thinking about safety. However, foodservice safety is a bottom line to any successful business. Regardless of the restaurant’s reputation or customer satisfaction, a focus lacking [...]

After overcoming the stigma of a serious learning disability, Daisy went on to finish high school and win an award for her achievement. Recently she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and told she has no choice but mastectomy. But what about nutrition? And what can you say to someone you barely know, who is [...]

I have a problem. Like most, I’ve long since switched to CFLs (compact flourescent lightbulbs) – the energy saving light bulbs that we’re all told we should be using these days. The trouble is, I’ve no idea how I’m supposed to dispose of the used ones. I’ve phoned the council to ask whether they have any special recycling facilities but apparently they don’t (I say apparently because the person you speak to doesn’t always know the answer, they often just think they do) and I can’t see what other options are open. I’d heard that US branches of IKEA take back these light bulbs for recycling so I checked with my nearest branch but no, the service isn’t available in the UK. The person I spoke to seemed to be surprised that I’d even asked about such a thing and had n

I have a problem. Like most, I’ve long since switched to CFLs (compact flourescent lightbulbs) – the energy saving light bulbs that we’re all told we should be using these days. The trouble is, I’ve no idea how I’m supposed to dispose of the used ones. I’ve phoned the council to ask whether they have any special recycling facilities but apparently they don’t (I say apparently because the person you speak to doesn’t always know the answer, they often just think they do) and I can’t see what other options are open. I’d heard that US branches of IKEA take back these light bulbs for recycling so I checked with my nearest branch but no, the service isn’t available in the UK. The person I spoke to seemed to be surprised that I’d even asked about such a thing and had n

Or, as Clint Eastwood once said, "Do you feel lucky, punk?"I'm debating hauling the children to Wal-Mart, and here is my internal monologue: ______________Pro: It will give us something to do this afternoon, since the kids are totally cabin-and-otherwise feverish.Con: I will have to fork over money to the evil empire.______________Pro: We will come home with things we need, like juice and bread.Con: We will come home with things we don't need, like one under $10 landfill-clogging toy per kid._______________Pro: We might be able to find a copy of "Mary Poppins" on DVD, something the kids having been begging for and which will buy me hours of peace.Con: I will spend the rest of the week trying to get the word "supercalifragilistic" out of my head._______________Pro: I really need to g

Like a trained parrot, I had blabbered everything nice about my university to the visa officer in order to get the visa. These days, the visa procedure has become more of a lucky draw. One of the main reasons for me coming to this university (as told to visa officer) was the ease of getting an assistantship. When I landed in America, the situation was rather chaotic.To begin with, the assistantship scenario was looking bleak since the professors with field of interest of my liking already had atleast one desi student under them. On the other hand, the fields in which I was not interested had all sorts of openings available! Facing a Catch 22 situation, I started writing e-mails to all the professors asking them for ‘FUNDING’… (that’s right…desi public have their own lingo…fundi

Lucky me, my uncle is big-shot in INDIA-AIR. He pulled couple of strings together & there I was flying to America in business class. He helped me find my seat & introduced me to the business class cabin crew & told them to take good care of me. When my uncle left the plane, the crew was still smiling at me but it was more of smirk…as if I was traveling for free or something. The worst thing about this situation was that I could not comfort myself with the free booze now that the entire crew knew who I was. The last thing you want is your mom shouting at you when you call her once you reach the university…rather than she asking you, “how was your flight? Are you jet-lagged?, blah blah blah”, she is going bonkers over the fact that her dotting ‘teetotaler’ son consume

It has been a while since I posted anything here. In fact, it has been a while since either of us posted anything here. I assume most of you know that I was kicked out of the house way back in August. My homies were obviously tired of entertaining me for last 20 something years & knowing that my dismal performance in studies led to abysmal performance in job related interviews; the only logical choice was to punish me for my deeds. A brief meeting was called sometime last year & it was decided that the only way in which I could redeem myself was by pursuing further education & by that they meant a masters' degree not just from anywhere but a Masters from a country which God always blesses - America!Fast-forward 1 year & here I am in some University in some state of US of A.Before sending me off though, there were words of advice from my family.My parents told me to study hard & reminded me how expensive education in the States is so it would be better if I coul

I have been floating the idea of dabbling in the domain game. As I discuss domaining with fellow entrepreneurs I get the usual talk, it is hyper competitive, all the low hanging fruit is gone…blah. This is a common question many entrepreneurs face when trying to find an industry or idea to attack next, is it too late to in get in? The majority of entrepreneurs most likely wouldn’t want to tackle the search engine industry. Who would want to compete against Google? If Sergy and Larry had this mindset about Yahoo in the 90’s we wouldn’t have Google. I know the counter argument, for every Google there are 1,000 failed attempts. But what fun is that? I just read an article about Frank Shilling on DN Journal. If you don’t know Frank, then get ready for a great story. The short version is about a German immigrant in Canada read about the money that could be made selling domains. He got into the domain game 2002, not 1997. Frank was told not to waste his time. A

Frank Pasquale posted Conditions for the Digital Library of Alexandria on his blog a few days ago - it is a considered response to Google (and other) major digitisation projects.His thesis is that, given that there are several of these major projects dividing up the world's libraries between them, and given that the terms tend to grant to the library whose stock is being digitised access only to their own books ("Those restrictive terms foreshadow potential future restrictions on and tiering of their book search services. "), a solution to the ongoing copyright/fair dealing law cases might be to accept the fair dealing argument if - and only if - the terms grant access to the whole collection. Given the diciness of the fair use case for projects like Google Book Search, courts should condition the legality of such archiving of copyrighted content on universal access to the contents of the resulting database. Landmark cases like Sony v. Universal have set a precedent for taking such b

Korean researchers have announced the development of a plastic optical fiber cable capable of transmitting 2.5Gbps while remaining flexible and easy to connect. If commercially viable, the new fiber could lead to fast home Internet connections.---It's amazing how technology grows over the years. Plastic optical fiber cable is slower than the glass counterpart but the advantage is it is not prone to breakage. We'll see what this new technology will bring us.read moresource: Ars Technica

Korean researchers have announced the development of a plastic optical fiber cable capable of transmitting 2.5Gbps while remaining flexible and easy to connect. If commercially viable, the new fiber could lead to fast home Internet connections.---It's amazing how technology grows over the years. Plastic optical fiber cable is slower than the glass counterpart but the advantage is it is not prone to breakage. We'll see what this new technology will bring us.read moresource: Ars Technica

LONDON (Reuters) - The world's booming tourism industry is both a contributor to and a victim of climate change but it must not be penalised as part of any solution, the head of the World Tourism Organisation said on Monday.Francesco Frangialli, secretary general of the United Nations body, said tourism was an economic lifeline for many nations and simplistic moves to curb it could spell doom for millions of people.

If you happened to have been sitting at your computer all day last Thursday, constantly refreshing our site (and I’m sure many of you do), you would have noticed something odd. On Breanna’s Japanese KitKat review, the spelling of KitKat kept changing between Kit Kat and KitKat. What you couldn’t see was a feverish effort behind the scenes to research which way was actually correct. Unfortunately, it just isn’t a clear cut matter. You see, in the United States, Hershey obtained a special licensing agreement in 1969 which allows it to manufacture and distribute Kit Kats. According to the Hershey Kit Kat page, the proper form is, in fact, the split form of Kit Kat. However, Hershey’s arch competitor Nestle manufactures and distributes KitKat in pretty much the rest of the world. While their website isn’t terribly consistent, for the most part, and especially on their history of KitKat page, the one word form is used. After much discussion and wrangli

2008 outlook: Housing by Money Magazine - 11/6/07 snips:Although home prices nationwide are down 4.2 percent from a year ago, "the worst is yet to come," says Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at consulting firm Maria Fiorini Ramirez. Just how bad will it get? According to Fiserv Lending Solutions, the median home price nationwide is expected to tumble 5.7 percent next year, which would make it the worst year for real estate in at least 40 years... The problem stems from that classic economic conundrum: too much supply and too little demand. As of September, some 4 million existing homes were languishing on the market - almost double the number three years ago - in addition to 523,000 new homes. Homes in foreclosure, projected to jump 25 percent next year to 1 million, further add to the backlog. Lenders, meanwhile, have dramatically tightened their borrowing requirements as defaults have risen, shrinking the pool of qualified buyers. If you were hoping to sell a home anytime so

There is an interesting conversation going on at the Soccer Mom Vote about Universal Health Care.One article written by an American living in Montreal states that Canada's Health Care system is the best thing since sliced bread.Another article, written by a self-proclaimed libertarian gives the opposite view.There are comments left, right, and all areas in-between. If you want to hear emotionally charged opinions on either side, I suggest you read both of them.Here is my article, Why Free National Health Care is Never FreeIn the mean time, if you want to help children get health care, click this button:I have one question for my readers, just to make sure I'm not being over-sensitive to the popular "conservative-bashing" trend. What do you think the following statement says about people who don't believe Nationalized Health Care is the answer to our broken system?sure universal healthcare has challenges, and needs continued improvement in canada, but in my humble opinion, it is st

Many a home business owner has spent sleepless nights thinking of ways to turn his venture into a higher profit-making unit and build it to be his primary source of income. This is never easy for a home business because most start-ups face initial lack of money and cash flows. A small cash strapp...

With all the fear that exists in the markets today, it seems all the world is waiting on what Mr. Bernanke decides to do with the Fed Fund Rates on Tuesday. Here are the possible outcomes:  1) No rate cut 2) 25 bps rate cut 3) 50 bps rate cut After running each scenario through my mind a few times, I looked at what each potentially signifies to the market, and concluded that none of the above have ideal outcomes. If the explanation for a rate cut is saving the housing market—think again; 25 or even 50 bps will have a minuscule effect on the mortgage and housing markets. It is a buyers market, but there is much more supply than demand, and housing will continue to falter regardless of Tuesday’s decision. A rate cut could also send a message to the market that the Yen currency carry trade is winding up and could send the Yen appreciating versus the dollar and all major currencies once again. Let me rationalize that thought quickly: a rate cut, while it will have the obvious effect o

Business Week has run a brief feature article on Ariad Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARIA) in its "Inside... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) has been an unbelievably strong IPO after the partial spin-off from EMC... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

photo by xgot_rice64xCooking spray, also know as Pam, is pure, marketing genius! It's promoted as a fat-free alternative to those darn oils that keep food from sticking to the pan and, well, are just plain tasty. Let's have a little closer look at what's in the can.A quick look at the Nutrition Facts label shows that it has 0g of fat and 0 calories. It's perfect! What is this magical product made of? Let's see the ingredient label says the first ingredient is...that can't be right...CANOLA OIL?! I'm holding a full can of Pam in my hot little hands and it is mostly canola oil. Yet it is somehow fat-free and calorie-free. Unless Con Agra has magical elves removing calories and fat from canola oil, something is rotten in Denmark, or in this case, Omaha, Nebraska. By the way, if you believe the magical elf theory, STOP READING "THE SECRET"! I just love beating up on that book.Obviously, magical elves are not involved in the process, but something is amiss. The "secret" to

Has this ever happened to you? You run out of toothpaste, so you squeeze the last bit out of the empty tube. There seems to always be just enough toothpaste for one more brushing. I've been using an "empty" toothpaste tube to brush my teeth for a week. I'm trying to truly empty it, but I just can't seem to manage. This makes me wonder if there is a better way to package toothpaste. If every "empty" tube actually has enough toothpaste for another week or more, then it seems awfully wasteful to throw the empties away. Upon review, this may be the most mundane and pointless blog entry ever. Text about Whidbey Island goes here.

Welcome to .NUTSI've been avoiding .NET for quite a long time. It's not that I'm an anti-Microsoft zealot, it's just that I used to code in Java at work and I figured that one platform full of frustrating limitations was more than enough. Recently, however, I decided to learn XNA on my own free time and that means getting involved with .NET and C#. It turned out to be just as frustrating as I feared, but at least it provided me with some nice blog material. Thus is the .NUTS "column" born in my blog, to document all that is weird in the .NET world. Expect stuff that might make you giggle, goggle and groan.Enums RevisitedI first encountered the concept of enumerated types when I learned Pascal. Before that I owned a Commodore, so I dabbled in Simons' BASIC and 6502 assembler. Therefore, I didn't approach enums the way a C programmer might -- as a cleaner way of defining constants -- but as a way of defining a completely new type that accepts only those identifiers I define. The di

07 Aug 2007 (Los Angeles Times) - The LA Times posts this story about how the Myanmar government has renovated - rather arbitrarily and inaccurately - it’s ancient monuments in a bid to attract tourists. All that glitters is not gold in Myanmar’s political landscape Amid Bagan’s historic gilded steeples stand newer imposters thrown up in a government effort to fuel tourism despite international sanctions. … UNESCO and archaeological experts have denounced the government’s rebuilding of ancient sites, and the construction of a mammoth 197-foot viewing tower that has been open for two years and an upscale resort in the middle of Bagan’s antiquities. Not that Myanmar’s State Peace and Development Council — the latest incarnation of a junta that has sealed the nation off from the rest of the world for the last 44 years — is going to lose sleep over some old bricks. Although a world pariah for its gulag of political prisoners, bloody ca

One of the most debated topics in fantasy football circles involves the drafting of quarterbacks. Everyone seems to have a differing opinion on this matter. Most hold fast to their philosophy, standing firm year after year. Others, although a group fewer in number, are more flexible, basing their opinion on that particular season's crop of quarterbacks. They, too, will have a game plan going into the draft and in nearly all cases will see it through to the end.What exactly are the schools of thought that these owners adhere to? Well, there are basically three:Grab a stud QB early, perhaps in rounds 1 or 2, but definitely by round 3. These owners will end up with players like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Carson Palmer, and Marc Bulger. Get some stud RBs and WRs first and then draft a QB in rounds 4, 5 or 6. Donovan McNabb, Matt Hassleback, Vince Young, and Jon Kitna will start for owners that choose this approach.Never draft a QB before round 7. These owners are content to st

Democratic Front-Runners Tangle After Monday Night's Debate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said today that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, her chief rival for the Democratic nomination, made comments that were "irresponsible and frankly naive" when he said in Monday night's debate that he would meet with leaders of rogue nations during his first year in office. Clinton's response, made in an interview with an Iowa newspaper, marks the sharpest exchange to date between the top two Democratic candidates for president and the first time Clinton has explicitly attacked another Democratic candidate. It represents an elevation in a simmering dispute between the two camps, and a continuation of a specific argument at Monday's debate. The question that sparked the controversy at Monday's debate seemed simple enough: Would the candidates for president be willing to meet, within their first year in office, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea? Obama said yes, while C

Let's face it, if you worry about which browser to use, you live a pretty good life. Well, I feel very grateful that my browser choice has been my main preoccupation for the last two hours of my life. Here's my browser issue. First, almost anything was better than Internet Explorer 6 and of the browsers available in 2005, I chose Avant because of its ability to tile browser windows and its compatibility with programs I used often like RoboForm. This year, however, I stopped using Avant browser because it's still based on Internet Explorer 6 which is less secure than other browsers and because it doesn't have the ability to search Digg, Technorati, Webster's dictionary, and Wikipedia from one drop-down menu like Firefox, my current browser. I loved Avant's ability to tile windows. Firefox is perfect except that I miss very much the ability to tile web pages within the same window. In other words, I want to be able to have multiple tabs open side-by-side where so that I can co

Dear Useless Men,Maybe you have covered this before - Still, I'm asking... I have a friend who was making a beautiful cabinet. While putting a final piece on a screw broke off. He went into a fit of rage, took the board out back and destroyed it with an ax. Then he made whole new board and finished the piece.Why didn't he just destroy the screw?Puzzled ObserverDear Non-Carpenter Type Person,It is apparent that you never took shop class when you were younger. The first rule when making a project is that if a component of said project causes you trouble, it is to be destroyed and replaced with a more docile replacement. This is often misinterpreted by non-professionals, or the uninformed, as an act of aggression, of rage on the behalf of the carpenter, when it is actually a public service. What many do not know is that it is completely possible to have a bad piece of furniture. I'm not talking about those red velvet love seats our family had back in the seventies, nor am I trying

The condo conversion market is continuing to feel the effect of a softening market. In the past few weeks a number of notable conversion projects have taken price reductions ranging from $5,000 up to $30,000 with most of the reductions being around $10,000 to $15,000. Some are offering other incentives for both the buyer (buyer bonuses, paid HOA dues, free TVs) and their agents (commissions as much as 5%). CityView - Leshi Denny Way Condos - Capitol Hill Harwood - Beacon Hill Market Court - Ballard Nine Cherry Square - First Hill Serana - Lower Queen Anne Tobira - Downtown/ID Vertigo - Capitol Hill I’m still receiving inquiries from apartment owners looking for developers to sell to, but with the increasing difficulty in moving the units and realizing lower profit margins, developers may begin to shy away from conversions until the market shakes out. This is potentially good news for renters (avoiding displacement) and will allow the market to stabilize. I have been in favor

Im having a conundrum. The whole reason I started this blog was to share the words, thoughts and feelings of the women on death row with the world. But today I got something that shocked me. Its hard to do that. I've seen quite a bit of shocking shit in my day. But today it has been done.I got a letter from Michelle Byrom in Mississippi. In it she laughs about sending me a letter off the same day she got mine. She talks about her health. She has two tumors developed in her back from unknown origins. She was finally able to get a tv but the guards kept it for 40 days before giving it to her.She is also upset because her fan is broken.It can get up to 90 in her cell.But none of this was shocking. What shocked me was what she included with her letter. It was some jail house correspondence between Michelle and a new girl in the prison. A Mrs.Jennifer Williams sentenced to 40 years for the sexual abuse of her own daughter. In this correspondenceshe spells out to Michelle exactly what she

Quebec is currently facing a shortage of teachers. For instance, a science teacher in High school can hardly be found that Quebeckers schools hired 142 teachers last year. These 142 science teachers didn't even have a teaching licence.Talk about so much open-mindedness from Quebec's educational system! If you're not qualified to teach any given subject, maybe you'll be hired if you studied in a Quebecker university. Unfortunately, many people don't notice Quebec's lack of open-mindedness towards qualified immigrants when it comes to granting teaching licence.For instance, this is what Bernard Tremblay, the director of working relations from the Fédération des commissions scolaires du Québec (FCSQ) said:"I've always had the feeling that [Quebec's] ministry of Education had an approach that is opened enough. We don't believe that the ministry of Education's attitude restrict the access to teaching for qualified people."Despite the few improvement that we've seen in the past

Quebec is currently facing a shortage of teachers. For instance, a science teacher in High school can hardly be found that Quebeckers schools hired 142 teachers last year. These 142 science teachers didn't even have a teaching licence.Talk about so much open-mindedness from Quebec's educational system! If you're not qualified to teach any given subject, maybe you'll be hired if you studied in a Quebecker university. Unfortunately, many people don't notice Quebec's lack of open-mindedness towards qualified immigrants when it comes to granting teaching licence.For instance, this is what Bernard Tremblay, the director of working relations from the Fédération des commissions scolaires du Québec (FCSQ) said:"I've always had the feeling that [Quebec's] ministry of Education had an approach that is opened enough. We don't believe that the ministry of Education's attitude restrict the access to teaching for qualified people."Despite the few improvement that we've seen in the past

******Updated below ... What's worse? No nap, or falling asleep on the couch at 5 p.m. in an "I wouldn't wake up if you fired a cannon" kind of way? Discuss. ******** At 7 p.m. we transfered her to her crib, where she woke briefly to say, "Dat's gooooooooood." She didn't stir again until 6 a.m. this morning. The Motherhood Gods took pity on me yesterday, because we both needed that rest.

This isn’t even a JW Note, this is just a notice to all of you who frequent this little corner of the internet — my 360 crapped out on me again. So, until further notice, this is the ONLY Xbox 360 blog on all the (known) internet who’s main man (aka ME) doesn’t actually HAVE an Xbox 360. How the piss is this going to work?

Before I knew anything about technology, startup companies or accounting I was an outdoor fanatic (I still am, just need to be reintroduced to the wild). Until I moved to DC, I was an avid mountaineer, did a semester at NOLS, hit the crags and mountain biked like a fiend. During senior year of college my passion was environmental policy, specifically involving wetlands. Unfortunately, I also found myself also enjoying technology (OMG, Urban!) and this was creating a conflict. For many, technology and nature are mutually exclusive. What do I mean? In our Outing Club, people would freak out when I brought my cell phone mountain biking, or my iPod hiking. I was criticized for wanting to move to Manhattan…why not Boulder or Bend? Anyway, one of my real interests is technology that can be used in the wilderness in a non-obtrusive, complementary manner. I’m currently reading the biography of Yvonne Chouinard the founder of Patagonia – the book is awesome, BUY IT! Yvonne was a guy who

Dear Useless Men,Q. Which is more useless ... writing a useless blog or painting then writing about it on a useless blog?Lesly FinnDeal Lesley,The answer here lies simply in intention and medium. The writing of a useless blog is not something that we, Useless Men, take lightly. No ma'am, not one bit. Many hours of harassment and strain are undertaken by our fearless administrator so that you, our constant readers, can enjoy you superiority to our beleaguered minds. Our function is simply "to spread the useless word" as many of us have exhausted the listening capacity of our collective spouses and relatives. Some even have pushed co-workers to the brink of apathy themselves.As for your concern, over the uselessness of painting then blogging, it would depend on what you are referring to. If you have one of those blogs where you show us the splendorous high resolution photographic detail about those amazing body paintings that look like clothes on naked women, then I'd say that is

Dear Useless Men, I really need your advice. Today, while on the job, I inadvertently and not on purpose victimized a person of questionable genderage, incorrectly identifying a "she" as "he." Needless to say, it put a serious damper on the work relationship. I will have to work with shim again in the future. Should apologize, or would that only make things more uncomfortable? Or, do I pretend nothing ever happened, and risk shim being angry with me? Please tell me what to do!Signed,X/Y ChromosomeDear X/Y, On the one hand, saying absolutely nothing is probably the easiest route. Sure it'll be uncomfortable at first, but thing of all the really uncomfortable stuff you'll be avoiding by just never bringing it up again! Things like when you point it out and apologize and she goes, "Don't worry, my mom does it all the time. Least when you do it you don't cackle afterwards," or, maybe if she gets mad, looks at you and goes, "Well, I might not have breasts, but at least I don't hav

I'm thinking about going to see the dreaded doctor. I've been exceedingly lucky with my health all my life and I firmly believe that this has a lot to do with the fact that I've never known there was anything wrong with me. Now though, things are getting a wee bit disturbing. I've been hearing voices. Well, not voices exactly. A whisper. Brains are funny things. I know that when I'm very tired I often think I see things out of the corner of my eye. If I've been stressed I get a more frequent sense of deja-vu. They are just tiny glitches, misconnections, neurons firing a little more randomly than usual. I have been very tired lately. I've had a big change of schedule, I'm busier, and I'm getting all the regular symptoms of burnout. I forget what I'm doing while I'm doing it. I make silly mistakes. That's what made the whisper so easy to dismiss the first few times it happened. I just had a bit of a giggle about the way it frightened me. I was on the edge of sleep the fir

From Asia TimesHONG KONG - The price of a commodity is determined by supply and demand. Any basic economics textbook teaches that. However, this law may only apply to a freewheeling market economy and from a long-term perspective.China boasts about being a socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics. Hence, despite the economic reforms and opening up over 20-plus years, some sectors remainz monopolized or tightly controlled by the state.According to the Chinese constitution, all land is publicly or collectively owned, and thus in effect belongs to the state. Therefore, land supplies are not decided by market forces but by the government. As such, the price law may not always apply.The property market in Guangzhou, provincial capital of Guangdong, is a good example. Although the municipal government significantly increased land supply for property development last year, seemingly to adhere to the central government's policy to cool down the sector, land prices, and hence hous

I just got back from going to TWO Joann's, since I'm in a hurry and the great button places around me are hours away. I came home with two bags of buttons. None are quite right, but maybe there's something that will do. I do this a lot -- nearly every time I make something, I have to go out and buy buttons, and I usually buy everything that looks close enough to work. So, why is it that, with the button stash I've amassed through this method, I never seem to have the right button for a project? Of course, now I have a lot more buttons, and that's never bad, right? And I mean I have a lot more buttons! Shell buttons, dyed red, dyed green, dyed gold with glitter flecks; clear buttons, in various shapes, some with colors in them; wire buttons; and several that are pairs of googly eyes with spectacle frames on them! If all else fails, my new white eyelet dress will have spectacles! (I've been trying to turn female, after YEARS of jeans and tee-shirts and shorts. So, dresses