Quotes, URL's, Links And References-by:older Femmes, Butches, Ftms, Mtfs, Queer, Etc.

[sweetlady]

:| :|

Passengers traveling with children, please step to the left. Exhibitionists and naturists, please form a single line in front of the nude X-ray:


You know airport security has come a long way when the prospect of a hands-on, pat-down search actually sounds appealing. I imagine it will to travellers passing through Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and its new "backscatter" machine, which takes graphic, near-nude X-rays of those who pass through it. Despite the privacy protections the Transportation Security Administration says it's built into the system -- a mechanism that blurs out naughty bits and another that prevents the printing, storing or transmission of the images it creates -- it's inevitable that some images will slip out. Once that happens, the jump to Flickr or YouTube is inevitable. "As this technology becomes commonplace, you're going to start seeing those images all over the Internet," Barry Steinhardt, head of the ACLU's technology and liberty program, told USA Today. "These images are going to have high commercial value."


http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1201X-ray1201.html


http://www.tsa.gov/research/privacy/backscatter.shtm


http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-30-tsa-xray_x.htm


:o :o Whoa!! I'll take the pat-down please.....;)


Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

;) ;)

http://www.idiotproofwebsite.com/


;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :)

Yo, birdbrain, you're on my turf!! Yeah, that's right, I'm singin' at you, pal!

Today's fun science item involves a study of great tits in cities across Europe, and while you're in mid-gasp, let me make clear that we are talking about our avian friends, the largest of the British tits, found in forests and cities across the continent. As related in National Geographic, that adaptability made the great tit a great subject for a study that found that city birds sing shorter, faster, higher-pitched songs than their country cousins. The researchers from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands think the birds amped up their songs to be heard over all the city noise, especially the low rumble of traffic. The biologists went to 10 major cites and nearby forests to record the songs of the great tits. In all of the urban areas, the birds dropped the lower-pitched parts of their songs, which would be muffled by traffic noise and thus a waste of time and energy, the researchers explained. Country tits usually sing two or three notes and then repeat them several times. The research found city birds sped up their songs by shortening the first note of these sets, as well as the pauses between them. The city tits also sang more varied songs, ranging from one note to as many as 16 strung together, patterns that were unusual in the forest, according to the scientists. With song playing a crucial role in mating and marking territory, researcher Hans Slabbekoorn said, the only explanation was that changing tunes offered a decided advantage in the urban jungle. As every country kid who ever moved to New York City could tell you.


http://www.rspb.org.uk/gardens/guide/atoz/g/greattit.asp


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061206-birds-cities_2.html


;) ;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:o


http://www.nyinquirer.com/nyinquirer/2006/11/seven_new_garba.html


(p) (p) 's of each one in the list. Don't think I will be visiting any of them. ;)


Sun Thoughts,

Sl & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y)

Posted 12/07/2006 @ 9:17pm

Jon Wiener The NATION

On the anniversary of John Lennon's murder (Dec. 8, 1980), I've been thinking about his famous argument with Gloria Emerson in December, 1969 – filmed by the BBC, and included in the recent documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon.

Emerson was a celebrated war correspondent for the New York Times who had just returned from the bloody battlefields of Vietnam; Lennon had just written "Give Peace a Chance" after he and Yoko declared their honeymoon a "bed-in for peace"--they had stayed in bed for a week, "in protest against all the violence in the world."

Emerson told him in her haughty upper class voice, "You've made yourself ridiculous!"

"I don't care," Lennon replied, "if it saves lives."

"My dear boy," she said, "you're living in a nether-nether land. . . . You don't think you've saved a single life!"

"You tell me what they were singing at the Moratorium," Lennon shot back – he was referring to the biggest anti-war demonstration in American history, which had been held in Washington DC a month earlier.

Emerson wasn't sure what he was talking about: "Which one?"

"The recent big one," Lennon explained. "They were singing "Give peace a chance."

"A song of yours, probably."

"Well, yes, and it was written specifically for them."

"So they sang one of your songs," she said with some irritation. "Is that all you can say?"

Now he was angry. "They were singing a happy-go-lucky song, which happens to be one I wrote. I'm glad they sang it. And when I get there, I'll sing it with them."

The film presents the exchange as an example of the mainstream media's relentless hostility to Lennon's peace activism, and celebrates his put-down of Emerson. But 37 years later, it's worth reconsidering Emerson's question: did "Give Peace a Chance" save a single life? Did the anti-war protest of 1969, or any other year, save any lives?

Of course the Vietnam war didn't end in 1969, even though Nixon had been elected the previous year after declaring he had a secret plan for peace. The Paris Peace Talks were already underway, but the American war didn't end for another four years – during which 20,000 Americans were killed, along with more than half a million Vietnamese and Cambodians.

You might ask Gloria Emerson's question about the anti-war demonstrations on the eve of the Iraq war, in New York, Los Angeles, London, Rome, and elsewhere. They were the biggest anti-war demonstrations in world history, but Bush invaded Iraq the next month anyway, and as of Dec. 8, 3,000 Americans have been killed there, and perhaps 650,000 Iraqis, according to the Johns Hopkins study published in The Lancet. Did those demonstrations in 2003 save a single life?

Maybe not, or at least not yet. Stopping a war takes a long time. But apathy in the face of an unjust war is simply unacceptable. As Rebecca Solnit argues in Hope in the Dark, you have to keep trying to win people over, because you can never be sure the forces of darkness will triumph, and because the most impossible things sometimes happen.

Lennon did come to the US, and eagerly embraced the steady work of anti-war persuasion and organizing. "Our job now is to tell them there still is hope," Lennon said at an anti-war rally in Michigan in 1971. "We must get them excited about what we can do again." It was hard to see it in 1969, but eventually the US did end its war in Vietnam. And today the people who were singing "Give Peace a Chance" in 1969 can be glad they sang it.


http://www.thenation.com/


(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)


SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

;) ;)


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4685602358019994174&q=Helsinki+Complaints+Choir


;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :) :)


http://home.planet.nl/~mourits/koelkast/


8-|8-|8-| (h)(h)(h)


Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D(um) :D(um) :D (um) :D (um)


(um) (um) (um) (um) (um) http://www.devilducky.com/media/54471/


(h)(h)(h)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D :D

http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2006/11/30/google-is-trying-to-get-into-your-pants/


:| :| :|

;) ;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D :D :D

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/55794


(y) (y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :)

http://www.dna11.com/


;)

SL & WTB (l)(&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:| But it was the smaller, scrappy players that got them back in the game.

By Tim Siglin

December 5, 2006 Streaming Media

At the final Supercomm, held in Chicago last year, Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers gave a great presentation. Besides telcos in the audience, there were also MSOs (cable operators) and pure-play IP startups. All heard the message loud and clear: Chambers unequivocally stated that video was The Next Big Thing. No longer would voice over IP be Cisco's core focus; instead it was setting its sites on the larger, more complex puzzle of moving video around the world, through the enterprise, and into the living room.

For those who missed that Supercomm presentation, Cisco reiterated the message earlier this week with a series of announcements at the ITU Telecom World show in Hong Kong. With a nod to "carriers of all types and sizes," Cisco is rolling out what it touts as the "Connected Life" for those who are willing to rely on Cisco's next generation network (see this page on Cisco's website for more details).

What exactly does Cisco's version of the connected life look like? Fairly close to today's life but with lots more services coming down the pipe. These include more than just broadband to the home, although Cisco doesn't differentiate between slow broadband like ADSL available in the U.S. market and the screaming fast XDSL available in the Asian market where the show is being held.

Industry analysts agree that it's not just about the pipe or basic store-and-forward video services. "Delivering the 'Connected Life' is about much more than just broadcast and on-demand video," said Mark Bieberich, vice president, communications infrastructure for Yankee Group in a Cisco press release. "It's about personalized IP service bundles that integrate video, VoIP, internet access, messaging, gaming, and audio entertainment applications requiring dynamic multicasting, advanced QoS, and policy management. The delivery of personalized service bundles that include video requires a new approach to service control at the network edge. The Cisco IP NGN architecture is a solid foundation upon which to develop these new service offerings and business processes."

Several of the concepts that are being rolled out on Cisco's laundry list for the Next Generation Network have been attempted before-with varying degrees of success-but one that stands out as a practical and hopefully successful attempt is what Cisco touts as its Rapid Channel Change (RCC) and video error repair technologies, branded by Cisco as VQE or Video Quality Experience technologies.

The reasons that these two issues are important lie at the heart of consumer viewing patterns.

First, consumers expect a TV-like simplicity and consistency in their TV viewing, regardless of whether it's over the air, via cable, or delivered by IPTV. In short, they expect to be able to change the channel in IPTV as easily-and quickly-as they change the channel for analog television. Technical complexities aside, they really don't care about whether it is more or less difficult to set up and tear down an IP stream for a particular "channel" of video entertainment; they just want it to work like the technology it's replacing but offer more options, preferably at a lower price.

For its video error repair, it's uncertain if Cisco will resort to packet flooding the way that videoconferencing companies did in the early days of H.323 to guarantee temporal delivery of packets for very time-sensitive data. Nor is there any indication that Cisco might be stealing a page from satellite IP's playbook by putting forward error correction algorithms in place. Regardless of how Cisco implements it, the fact that they're tackling the problem shows both that an industry giant knows one of the Achilles heel's of the IPTV market and that the same industry giant is validating IP entertainment delivery in a way that draws significant attention.

Cisco has made great strides into video since its acquisition of Scientific Atlanta, a company that's moving from its roots in satellite set top boxes to become a leader in the IP set top box marketplace. And the move to make Scientific Atlanta the showcase end user product in Cisco's lineup will create some interesting dynamics with another technology giant who has chosen to move into the video space: Texas Instruments.

Much has been written about TI's DaVinci technology and its move from a supplier of DSPs that development partners had to slog through learning to a provider of analysis tools and-in more recent days-bundled deals with codecs and even integrated/embedded Linux deals that assist developers in cranking out video-related products.

Thursday, Dec. 7, Texas Instruments hosted a web seminar with a variety of participants, providing perspective on what it sees as the Next Big Thing: transcoding. TI's willingness to host this discussion seems to be a step in the right direction.

Which brings us back around to Cisco. Scientific Atlanta is one of TI's customers; now that it's a Cisco shop, though, and now that TI begins to beat the drum for transcoding content into any format the consumer wants at any point on the network (and even encouraging industry discussion on how to do this transcoding), it will be interesting to see how the two titans see the market forming up around what Cisco is dubbing Video 2.0 in a nod to the social networking Web 2.0 technologies that have made significant inroads over the last 12-18 months.

One thing's for certain: with the big boys back on track, understanding and touting the message that video startups have been championing for the past decade, video is here to stay. We're past the hype and back into meaningful dialogue about how to consistently address problems that have plagued the entire "Video 2.0" value and supply chain over the past few years. And all of you in smaller video startups should realize that it has been your tenacity and innovative approaches to solving these problems on a smaller scale that has attracted attention once again from the major companies in the industry.


(y)8-| (y) 8-| (y)8-| (y) 8-|(y)8-| (y) 8-|(y)8-|

:) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y)

Brad gets Wright gift for birthday

Jolie takes Pitt, an architecture buff, to Fallingwater

Saturday, December 09, 2006

By Patricia Lowry, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

What's the perfect birthday present for one of the world's most famous couples? Why, a visit to one of the world's most famous houses, of course. Thursday, Angelina Jolie treated Brad Pitt to an afternoon at Fallingwater.

"Brad said he had wanted to experience Fallingwater ever since he took an architectural history course in college," said Cara Armstrong, Fallingwater's curator of education. "He and I talked quite a bit about design and art. He was incredibly well-informed about architecture."

Ms. Armstrong and Fallingwater's events coordinator, Edna King, picked up Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie at the Latrobe Airport and spent an hour talking to them in the car before Ms. Armstrong led them on a two-hour private tour of the house. Ms. Armstrong described the couple as "very gracious and very engaged in the house. As we say in the Midwest, you could tell their mothers raised them right."

Ms. Armstrong and Ms. King met the couple, who were traveling alone, on the airport tarmac at the request of Ms. Jolie's assistant. They drove to Fallingwater in an SUV with tinted windows, with the celebrity couple in the back seat, Ms. King driving and Ms. Armstrong telling them about the house Frank Lloyd Wright designed in Mill Run.

"We thought they might not have enough time to hear about the house before the tour," Ms. Armstrong said. They had arrived by private jet after bad weather canceled a helicopter ride. The couple said they had to be back in Brooklyn by early evening.

"Brad said he had a visual sense of Fallingwater but experiencing it in person, hearing the sound of the waterfall cascading under the house and smelling the wood from the fireplace, was better than anything he could have imagined," Ms. Armstrong said.

"I knew he was an architecture geek kind of guy, and I knew he had tried coming a few years earlier, but I was shocked," she said when she first learned they were coming. "At first we thought it was a joke."

Mr. Pitt will be 43 on Dec. 18.

"I was just impressed by how interested in architecture he was," said Ms. Armstrong. "He was talking about Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel and Zaha Hadid and Greene and Greene. He was trying to explain the Golden Mean and proportion and flow of space to Jolie, and he was getting it right. It was fun to see somebody that interested in and excited about architecture and design."

Ms. Jolie had arranged to have champagne and caviar sent in after the tour, and the couple shared that in a brief private birthday celebration in Fallingwater's living room. Afterward, they invited the staff to join them.

Arrangements for the visit began about a week before Thanksgiving, when staff at Fallingwater received a call from Ms. Jolie's personal assistant in Asia. The assistant was reluctant to provide the names of the couple but relented when Ms. King assured her she would be discreet.

During their visit, the couple commented on the beauty of the winter landscape of the Laurel Highlands.

"They didn't behave like celebrities," Ms. Armstrong said. "They were just people coming to see great architecture and wanting to know more about it."

"He's so hard to buy for," Ms. Jolie told her.

Shortly after the story hit the Post-Gazette's Web site yesterday -- where it quickly zoomed to the top of the most e-mailed stories list -- e-mails began pouring in from readers convinced the photograph of the pair standing in front of Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic house was a fake.

For the record, it isn't.

"No way! I took that photo myself, and I am proud of it!" Ms. Armstrong said.

In the photograph but out of camera range, Ms. Jolie is wearing Ms. King's shoes.

"We were going to [the] overlook to see that iconic view of Fallingwater, and she had the most elegant shoes on you could imagine," Ms. King said. Realizing that wearing high heels on the rustic stone steps might not be the best idea, Ms. Jolie said she would wait in the car while Pitt went down for a look.

"I said, 'What size shoes do you wear?' and she said '9.' I said I wear 9 and a half; you can wear mine.' I thought that said a lot about her, that she would wear a stranger's shoes. They were very humble and down to earth."

Mr. Pitt's latest movie, "Babel," is now in theaters, and he's recently been filming "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" in Louisiana.

Ms. Jolie, 31, has been filming "A Mighty Heart," based on a memoir written by Mariane Pearl, the widow of slain journalist Daniel Pearl. She also appears in "The Good Shepherd," due Dec. 22.

The couple have three children: Maddox, 5, Zahara, 2, and 7-month-old Shiloh.

After the tour, a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce took the couple back to the Latrobe Airport.

Fallingwater, whose own fame was well-calculated by its owner and its architect in the late 1930s, has long been a celebrity magnet, most recently attracting actors Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, Dennis Miller and Randy and Dennis Quaid.


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06343/744876-42.stm


(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the napping Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:)

Star-studded audience turns out for Nobel ceremony

Security was tight around the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on Sunday. No wonder, when the roughly 1,000 people in the audience featured high-ranking government officials, movie stars and a sprinkling of royalty.

A helicopter whirred overhead and police were stationed at all entrances to Oslo's City Hall for hours before the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony got underway at 1pm. Commando vans and police cars were parked all over downtown, and plain-clothes security guards were also out in force.

December 10th is always a big day in Oslo, because that's the day set aside every year for the actual awarding of the Peace Prize under the terms of Alfred Nobel's will. This year was no exception.

Flags flew all around the City Hall and ceremonial torches around the perimeter were lit. Inside, at least 12,000 flowers, many of them red anthuriums, added color to the mural-adorned walls of the building's main hall, which is often used for special occasions.

The annual Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is the most special of them all. This year it attracted royalty in addition to Norway's own: Spain's Queen Sophia was in the first row, seated next to one of prize winner Muhammad Yunus' daughters. The queen of Spain was among those invited by Yunus himself, because of her interest in his work.

Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja were, in line with royal protocol, the last to be seated at precisely 12:59pm, followed by Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, to the strains of the royal fanfare. The four arrived just after the Norwegian Nobel Committee members and the prize winners Yunus and Mosammat Taslima Begum, who represented Grameen Bank.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was also there with his wife, diplomat Ingrid Schulerud, and members of his government. Seated just behind them was Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former Norwegian Prime Minister who went on to lead the UN's World Health Organization.

Seated several rows behind Yunus' daughters and brothers was Hollywood film star Sharon Stone, who will co-host this year's Nobel Concert on Monday evening along with Angelica Houston. Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullman was also in the audience, and she posed with Sharon Stone outside City Hall when the ceremony ended.

And seated right behind Stone was Svein Aaser, the soon-to-retire chairman of Norway's biggest bank, DnB NOR. He was seen listening intently to Yunus' Nobel Lecture, in which Yunus criticized commercial banks' reluctance to lend to the poor, believing them to be not credit-worthy.

Yunus' Grameen Bank has proven them wrong, citing a high repayment rate even among the 85,000 beggars who were lent the equivalent of USD 12, interest free. Aaser joined everyone else in the huge room in giving Yunus a standing ovation.


http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1564650.ece


(y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)


http://www.marquise.de/en/themes/hut/hut3.shtml


:) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(p) (h) (h)(p)


http://www.baronhats.com/eliza_d_praise.htm


:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D


http://www.audrey1.com/articles/articles6.html


:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:)


Definitely the "Breakfast at Tiffany's" hat but the others are nice too:

http://www.annemoore.com/fall1.htm



(l) (l) (p) I love the "Upturn Classic" : http://www.annemoore.com/fall2.htm


:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(h)(h)


http://www.back-in-style.com/customer/home.php


(y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:)

(y) (y) (y)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Hepburn


Outstanding opener! http://www-scf.usc.edu/~kristena/


http://www.katharinehepburn.net/



(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (p) (y) (p) (y) (p)


http://katehepburn.tripod.com/kate017.jpg


http://www.born-today.com/Today/pix/hepburn_kate2.jpg


http://www.katharinehepburn.net/gallery/kate13.jpg


http://sege.blogspot.com/kate%20hepburn.jpg


http://alexanderthegreat9.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/kate004.jpg


Carpe Diem,

SWeetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (p) (y) (p)

http://adorocinema.cidadeinternet.com.br/personalidades/atores/audrey-hepburn/audrey-hepburn04.jpg


http://www.leninimports.com/audrey_hepburn_gallery_9.jpg


(l) (p) (l) (p) GALLERY: http://www.leninimports.com/audrey_hepburn_gallery.html


http://www.perkydesigns.com/audrey-hepburn-hat1.jpeg


Have fun!

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:o :o

:)

http://www.babbonyc.com/travel.html


;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y)

http://www.hotelcongress.com/


(k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:o :o :o

:) :)


http://www.edgeofthebay.com.au/


(y) (y) (y) (y)

(k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :) :)


http://www.vilayatours.com/


Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D


http://www.thecrossingsaustin.com/


(l) This is what I'm talking about: R&R Packages for Womyn:

http://www.thecrossingsaustin.com/personal/index.php?sec=4

1. Working Women’s Half-Day of Wellness

2. 9 to 5 Pampering Package for Women

3. Girlfriend Getaway

4. The TLC Retreat


;) <contented sigh>,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:o :o :o

:)


http://www.birdwingspa.com/


(f) (f) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)


http://www.nationalwestern.com/



:D :D eeeeeHaaa!


SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:)


http://www.doorcounty.com/


:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(8) (8) (8) (8) (8)

(y) (y) (y)

http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/composer/szymanowski.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karol_Szymanowski


http://www.amazon.ca/Songs-Fairytale-Pricess-Karol-Szymanowski/dp/images/B000HC2NJM


http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_szymanowski_karol


:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

Julie White and Tom Everett Scott play a scene together in "The Little Dog Laughed.:

http://www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/elements/2006/11/14/theater/photoessay2180364.shtml


:) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:| :| :|


http://www.365days365plays.com/


(y) Quite an amazing feat.


:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:s :s :s


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/55ABE840-AC30-41D2-BDC9-06BBE2A36665.htm


:o If one is relentless enough, one can find the truth.

Well, if reading "alternative", progressive, overseas-based and news web sites such as the one above, one can become more aware of the closest approximation of the truth.......;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f)


http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11644671


(f) (f) (f) (f) (f) (f)


:-#:-# I hope the truth comes out about these Russians who were killed for criticizing their government or who defected to the UK.


:| :|

Anna: Rest in Peace. (f)


Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

:s :s


http://www.eurotrib.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2006/11/19/20439/209


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6180682.stm


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/16192466.htm


(n) (n) 8o| GRRRR. Shame on Putin and his cronies. +o( +o(


SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D


http://www.randbrand.com/


:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :| :| :| :|


http://www.gizmag.com/go/3691/


http://www.research.philips.com/technologies/display/mrrordisp/mirrortv/index.html


+o( +o( Don't think I'd want of these. ;) ;)


Adieu,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :)

Geologists believe that the multi-layered semi-precious gem stone believed to be found only in the Cayman Islands was formed between sixteen and twenty-five million years ago, during the Oligocene-Miocene epoch. The various-colours result from different metals. Black and grays from Manganese, the red hues from iron, blue, and green from copper, and so on.

Caymanite is an extremely hard material and must be worked with special tools including diamond-tipped cutting wheels and grinders. Entensive polishing after the piece is carved results in a brilliant, marble-like finish. The art of working and shaping Caymanite is very specialized, and only after many years of practice is one able to produce items that are suitable for resale.


http://www.handmade.com.ky/index.htm


(p) (p) Gorgeous! http://www.caymanspirit.gov.ky/pls/portal/docs/1/866311.JPG



(p) Looks like from the U.S. Southwest to me:

http://www.yourgemologist.com/caymanite4.jpeg


(f) (f) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

http://www.nature.org/popups/images/irp_header.gif


I am a member. Are you? http://www.nature.org/


Adieu,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (l)

[sweetlady]

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f)


Restoring Australia’s Botanic Wonderland
By Ron Geatz

Smooth, white-barked eucalyptus trees rise from ochre soil, topped by umbrellas of brassy-olive leaves. Silvery saltbush hugs the ground, sheltering goanna lizards. The hot white surface of a dry salt lake glistens in the distance. The screech of black cockatoos draws attention skyward, summoning visions of pterodactyls soaring overhead.

This 3-billion-year-old landscape in southwestern Australia has over the past 250 million years gone largely undisturbed by catastrophic events such as volcanoes, earthquakes and glaciers. It is flat, infertile, leached of nutrients and laden with salt. The result, bewilderingly, is a botanic wonderland.
In this isolated and seemingly inhospitable landscape, native plants—about half of which exist nowhere else—adapted and evolved intriguing methods of survival. Some became carnivorous; others established symbiotic relationships with hardier neighbors; still others developed bizarre root systems to scavenge sparse sustenance. And as the climate changed over millenniums, identical plants just meters apart evolved into distinct species—estimated to be some 8,000—as did the animals that depend on them.

“This is a rare part of the world where evolution has proceeded apace,” explains Keith Bradby, coordinator of Gondwana Link, an ambitious effort to conserve this landscape. “And it still can if we give it a hand.”

The “hand” the land needs is substantial. It was post-World War II government policy to clear “a million acres a year” and transform the region into Australia’s breadbasket. Yet much of this geography has proved unsuitable for traditional crops and grazing. Mallee—the thirsty, deep-rooted eucalyptus shrub that once covered much of the terrain and drew heavily from the underground water table—is perfectly adapted to the salt-laden soil. But as nearly two-thirds of the mallee and other native groundcover was cleared and supplanted with shallow-rooted annual grass and grain, the groundwater rose, dissolving ancient salts that then were drawn to the surface. In some places, the semiarid landscape is now drowning in saltwater.

It is in this crazy quilt of wheat farms, primeval plants, orderly vineyards and vibrant wildflowers that The Nature Conservancy has inspired five Australian conservation organizations to think bigger than they ever have. Gondwana Link is a visionary effort to reconnect and restore a 1,000-kilometer swath of native bush land from the desert edge of Australia’s Outback to the tall-tree forests of the Southwestern coast. The initiative takes its name from Gondwanaland, the prehistoric landmass from which most of the Earth’s southern continents broke apart and drifted away.

“To heal this land, as much as a third of this region will need to be revegetated, possibly much more,” says Bradby. “But the mix of plants changes, acre by acre, across hundreds of kilometers. To effectively reveg, you need to collect seeds from the plants on or next to each property.”

Thus the partners find themselves pioneering restoration on an acre-by-acre basis at places like Yarrabee, a 2,300-acre former sheep ranch where a duo of tractors tills the sandy soil and sows a mix of native seeds painstakingly collected from the immediate vicinity. This, the most recent acquisition of Greening Australia and the Australian Bush Heritage Fund—two of Gondwana Link’s lead partner organizations—is the largest single ecological planting ever undertaken in Australia. Once restored, the ranch will form a key part of the crucial habitat link between the region’s two largest protected areas, the Fitzgerald River and Stirling Range national parks—or the Fitz-Stirling, as the area is known locally.

Conservancy matching funds, created to encourage new strategic endeavors in Australia, helped to purchase Yarrabee. The same matching funds helped the Gondwana Link project get off the ground four years ago. Since then, more than 13,000 acres on seven properties have been purchased or placed under conservation easements in the Fitz-Stirling. Nearly half of the land targeted for conservation is currently on the open market, creating an unprecedented opportunity to buy and restore or restructure farms to make them ecologically and economically sound.

The Gondwana Link approach in this sparsely populated corner of the world involves, by necessity, a Conservancy-style push to invest in local partnerships and grass-roots experiments—knowing that collectively they can make large-scale restoration a reality. Town-dwelling elders of the aboriginal Noongar people, eager to reconnect their youngsters with the country while the stories and memories of earlier times still survive, have become part of the cultural and ecological restoration. Some local farmers are cultivating native plants, such as sandalwood, which can be sold for use in cosmetics and incense. Others are looking at planting native hardwoods that can yield sturdy support poles for the grapevines of the burgeoning Australian wine industry. And corporations have noted with interest that restored mallee is particularly effective at sequestering carbon—making it a potential tool to offset greenhouse-gas emissions elsewhere.

If humans can adapt themselves to the dictates of the land, Gondwana Link may just succeed.

As the traditional farming population steadily declines, there is a growing desire by those remaining to create sustainable livelihoods and sustainable communities. “We are crazy enough to think we can achieve our ecological goals while strengthening the region’s social fabric,” says Bradby. “As we restore the landscape, we also want to help restore people’s relationship to and respect for the land and its needs. There is increasing awareness here of how rich and fragile this seemingly harsh geography really is. Ultimately, healing the land means healing ourselves.”


http://www.nature.org/magazine/autumn2006/features/index.html


(f) (f) (f) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(f) (f)

Rediscovering a long-forgotten native plant rekindles childhood memories

Sunday afternoons in late fall, we packed into the family car with our buckets and sacks and drove into the Iowa countryside in search of hickory nuts and native bittersweet. I loved the drives down dusty gravel roads on those golden days when the sun shone brightly against the azure sky and the treetops were ablaze with red, yellow and orange leaves. But it was the wispy vine with the brilliant red-orange berries and pale husks tangled in the fence lines that fascinated me most.

This was in the 1950s, before fence-to-fence planting and roadside spraying and mowing. You did not need to drive far into the country to find bittersweet. It climbed up fence posts, slithered gracefully along old wire fences, entwined roadside bushes, crawled up tree trunks. These were less hurried times, when families still did family things. At the end of the day, we returned home to crack the nuts with a hammer on the basement floor, while Mom decorated the living room with the vine that we prized—a symbol of the changing seasons. As surely as tulips meant spring, green grass summer and pine trees winter, bittersweet meant fall.

Four decades ago, American bittersweet grew abundantly in the Mid-west. For generations, it withstood summer drought, winter ice and everything else nature could throw at it. It endured everything, it seemed, except the influence of man. In time, it disappeared from the fence posts, barbwire and roadsides.

As an adult, I no longer saw the bittersweet that so captivated me as a youth. I came across the fake version in craft stores where they sell plastic plants. I wondered if the imitation, so lacking the brilliance and delicacy of the real thing, was all that remained.

Then a couple years ago, I built a new home in South Dakota, near a nature preserve. Behind my house lie acres of cottonwood and cedar, native prairie grasses, and scrub brush. Here, coyotes, deer, foxes, turkeys and badgers roam undisturbed, and songbirds thrive.

One November day, peering deep into the woods, I noticed them—the brilliant red-orange berries. They hung in thousands of clumps, as far as I could see. The vine climbed cottonwood trunks and curled around small shrubs; it graced the tops of short trees and threaded through the branches of the wild cedars as if guided by the hand of a father decorating a Christmas tree. If there was a bittersweet heaven, this was it.

Unlike its Oriental cousin, which can choke a forest with a kudzulike vengeance, American bittersweet complements the woods, and lives in harmony with other species. Here, protected from poisonous spray, the blade and fire, this plant still thrives.

I stop by the woods frequently to study it. The brilliant berries cling tenaciously from fall until spring. Some are eaten by small mammals, birds and deer. I have seen robins
flitting from tree to tree in the early spring when the snow is still on the ground, tugging furiously at the faded berries until, at last, they give way. By mid-April, the last vestiges are gone, and the vine prepares for new growth.

Happily, I have discovered anew the mystical vine of my youth. By some wonderful quirk of fate, in my own back yard, I am surrounded by it—the vine that remains inextricably entwined with the memories of my childhood. Bittersweet memories, rekindled in these bittersweet woods.

—William Kevin Stoos


http://www.nature.org/magazine/autumn2006/people/art18696.html


(l) (l) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :) :)


1. Hells Canyon Country: Wildlife and Landscapes

and

2. Alaska: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Base Camp.....

sounded like great trips.<:o) <:o) <:o)



http://www.nature.org/aboutus/travel/


(S) (S) Have a lovely Monday evening and peaceful dreams tonight.(S) (S)


(k) (k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D


http://www.flickr.com/photos/iconfactory/sets/72157594406897342/


(h)8-| (h)8-| (h)8-| (h)8-|


;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/the-japanese-super-safe-wii-safety-manual-218939.php


:o :o :)


SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:o :o

Gorgeous too!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh_qn62zny0


SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

;)

Q U O T E D

"One could do deep-ocean research for SpongeBob SquarePants. That doesn't make it science."

-- Idaho State University professor Douglas P. Wells posits some new fields of study for Sasquatchologist D. Jeffrey Meldrum


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bigfoot10dec10,0,1835284.story?coll=la-home-headlines


:D :D Well, I thought this one was hilarious. ;)


Adieu,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :|


:o :o :o


http://www.ifilm.com/video/2805081


:) :) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D :D


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQg0JNaKeVM


:D :D :D

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D :D


http://www.radarmagazine.com/features/2006/12/toys.php


:) 's.

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:o :o

Q U O T E D

Heart rate quickens

Increased sweating

Furious clicking of the mouse

Simultaneous clicking and cursing the screen

Bashing the mouse

-- The UK's Social Issues Research Center lists the first 5 signs of Mouse Rage, a syndrome inspired by badly designed Web sites.


http://search.sys-con.com/read/313221.htm


:| :| :|

LONDON, December 12 /PRNewswire/ --

- Study Identifies the Five Key Factors of a Badly Designed Website That May Have Negative Effects on the Immune System, Cardio Functioning and the Nervous System

According to a report published today by the Social Issues Research Centre and commissioned by Rackspace Managed Hosting, the UK's most recommended hosting specialist (1), there are five key IT flaws in the way websites are designed and hosted that may lead to harmful health effects.

The study combined data from a YouGov poll of 2,500 people with physiological tests on a separate sample of internet users, who were asked to find information from a number of different websites. The tests measured the physical and physiological reactions to website experiences, looking at brainwaves, heart-rate fluctuations, muscle tension and skin conductivity. Results indicated that badly designed and hosted websites cause stress and anger, leading to the term "Mouse Rage Syndrome" or MRS being coined.

The Top 5 website failures that lead to Mouse Rage

- Slow to load pages

- Confusing / difficult to navigate layouts

- Excessive pop-ups

- Unnecessary advertising

- Site unavailability

Damaging health and reputations

The test results indicate that users want Google-style speed, function and accuracy from all of the websites they visit, and they want it now. Unfortunately, many websites and their servers cannot deliver this. The result - consumers seeking alternative websites in a bid to avoid undue stress and Mouse Rage.

The SIRC report states: "When the test participants came to the 'problem' sites that we had deliberately chosen as comparisons for the 'Perfect Website' evaluation exercise [a prior study], responses changed quite dramatically in most, but not all, cases. While a few managed to stay calm and simply 'rise above' the problems presented by crazy graphics and slow-loading pages, others showed very distinct signs of stress and anxiety."

The report went on to state "Some changes in muscle tension were quite dramatic...While this was happening, the participant's faces also tensed visibly, with the teeth clenched together and the muscles around the mouth becoming taught. These are physically uncomfortable situations that reduce concentration and increase feelings of anger."

The first signs of Mouse Rage:

- Heart rate quickens

- Increased sweating

- Furious clicking of the mouse

- Simultaneous clicking and cursing the screen

- Bashing the mouse

Jacques Greyling, managing director of Rackspace Managed Hosting comments, "We believe that businesses that are selling online have a duty to their customers to ensure that the experience is as stress free as possible. The public has shown that it wants to buy online, as it has been forecast that over GBP4m(2) an hour will be spent in the UK in the run up to Christmas. The message is clear, businesses need to provide simple and easy to navigate layouts, whilst focusing on speed and uptime."

References:

(1) Vanson Bourne research, May 2006

(2) IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group)



(o) Maybe the usually-reserved Brits are more prone to this? ;)



:o :o

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

;) ;)


http://www.verizonfails.ytmnd.com/


8o| 8o| But then, don't ALL tlecommunications' services companies?

;) ;) ;) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:s :s


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiQXgmVVGNA



|-) |-) So what? Guy feet with genius toes? ;)


Season's Greetings!

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :| :|

;) ;)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYVlHqCC4Qo



(y) (y) Must be that I never had or wanted kids, but I thought this one was hilarious! :) :)


(ip) Warm Thoughts (ip)

Sweetlady & wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:| :|


http://www.suck.uk.com/product.php?rangeID=55



;) ;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

;) ;)


You can't put frosting on manure, although I'm sure Yahoo would like to do just that with new comScore data that claims News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media has surpassed it to become the top U.S. Web property in page views. According to comScore , Fox Interactive Media's total U.S. page views increased to 39.5 million from 38.7 million during November, while Yahoo's page views declined to 38 million from 41.6 million. "We've seen some very strong growth from Fox Interactive Media ever since the MySpace acquisition was completed," explained comScore analyst Michael Rubin. "We've seen over the last year tremendous interest in social-networking sites. It's only natural that their page views would be increasing."


http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16224731.htm


http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=20173&hed=Yahoo+Dethroned+By+MySpace


Yahoo, which has been having a decidedly tough time of it lately (see " Hey Terry, ever hear the one about the CEO and the three envelopes?") did its best to put a positive spin on the news, blaming the decline in traffic on Web 2.0 tech and pointing out that Yahoo shareholders still have a few things to be happy about. "Yahoo continues to be the overall Web audience leader with the largest number of unique users and most time spent online. The page view change in November is related to the use of Ajax and other Web 2.0 technologies across the Yahoo network," said spokeswoman Nissa Anklesaria. "These technologies enhance the overall user experience, but do not either generate a page view or qualify to be counted as a page view while the user is engaged with the product."


http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/12/yahoo_added_som.html


(y) (y) (y)


SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y)(h)(y)(h)(y)(h)(y)(h)(y)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Of_mna-Rs



(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D :D :D



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDiiUSdnPwA




;) ;) 's and ({)(}) ({)(}) ({)(}) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)


http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/sao_tome_e_principe_works_with_technology_4043.asp


:) Although not as ruggedized as I would like my USBs to be, these *are pretty.


HO, HO, HO (and no, I am not standing on a digital street corner...) :D


(k) (k) 's,

SL & WTB

[sweetlady]

:s :s


MIND


It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.

- Sally Kempton
Courtesy of David Allen "Getting Things Done"



:| Make me nod in wise agreement and smile to myself. This insight could apply to anyone in one's past though.


(y) Got another "A" on my 23rd grad course. There is one last but not least course left to take starting in Jan., 2007. One last elective. I need to decide before then - which independent study to take as my last course. And then? Comprehensive exams........:) And *then*..... dissertation. 8-|8-|8-|8-|8-|


As Roseanne Rosannadanna on SNL during the early 1970s always used to say, "It's always something."


:) I'm grateful to have enough brain cells left to work and get those "A's" as well as continuing to move forward towards that PhD. It seems only yesterday (well, not really) since I started my Master of Science in April of 2003. 8-)8-)


(f) (f) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D


http://www.apsnet.org/online/feature/chile/image/wilt2.jpg


http://www.new-mexico-catalog.com/assets/images/848L.jpg


http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/310552/2/istockphoto_310552_red_chili_pepper_ristras.jpg


Very (h) (p) 's!!


(l) (l) Imagining myself and Wyatt the Boxer in NM smelling the pinyon pine in the kiva fireplaces, luminarias glowing on adobe buildings' roofs and chile pepper ristras hanging every place. (sigh) (l) (l)


(l) Feliz Navidad!

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)


The Problem With Allen Iverson

He wants to win, but he doesn't know how.

By Nathaniel Friedman

Posted Friday, Dec. 15, 2006, at 2:11 PM ET

In the days since Allen Iverson has been put on the trading block, it seems like every team in the NBA has lined up to make an offer for the Philadelphia 76ers guard. Meanwhile, fans and writers have ridiculed the Sixers for failing to make it work with a once-in-a-lifetime talent. On ESPN.com, Bill Simmons wrote, "How could a coach-killer who allegedly monopolizes the ball, hates to practice and can't sublimate his game double as one of the most revered, respected players in the league?" While that's an appealingly complex idea—a misunderstood Iverson done in by incompetent coaches and executives—the truth is much simpler. The Sixers may have mishandled their star player's career, but it's Iverson's style of play that's set up the team—and him—for disappointment.

For better or worse, Iverson is synonymous with the NBA Dark Ages of the later 1990s. Probably the best player under 6 feet tall in the history of the league, Iverson's intensity and heart made him one of the sport's most popular figures. On the other side, his freewheeling play, clashes with coaches, and brushes with the law made him the poster child for the sport's post-Jordan decline. If Jordan defined his era by being an icon everyone could agree on, then Iverson's divisiveness defined his.

Yet Allen Iverson is much more of a traditionalist than he's made out to be. He routinely takes the floor with serious injuries and gives his all in seemingly meaningless contests. When so many of his peers thought nothing of switching teams in free agency, he stuck with Philly for 10 up-and-down seasons. He often spoke of wanting to retire as a Sixer and didn't ask out for years despite repeated attempts by management to show him the door. And even when fans in Philadelphia criticized him, he loved his city unconditionally. San Antonio's Tim Duncan and Minnesota's Kevin Garnett have practically been sainted for devotion to their respective franchises. Iverson is rarely given the same recognition.

But there's an important difference between Iverson and stars like Duncan and Garnett: They're team players, and he is not. Duncan and Garnett are unselfish, versatile, and almost deferential to their teammates. Iverson shoots relentlessly, disrupts any attempts at team strategy, and has proven incompatible with just about every kind of complementary scorer. The Sixers may never have given him a competent starting five, but he never achieved any kind of chemistry with above-average players like Chris Webber, Jerry Stackhouse, Andre Iguodala, Larry Hughes, Matt Harpring, and Keith Van Horn. Whenever the team succeeded, it was because of his individual efforts. Conversely, when Iverson clanked his way through an off-night, there was no alternative the Sixers could turn to.

When Michael Jordan was at his peak, half the country identified as Bulls fans. Yet while Iverson's jersey remains among the league's top sellers, most people couldn't care less about the uninspiring Sixers. It's not a stretch to say that since he's been on the team, the Philadelphia 76ers have thrived only as a platform for Allen Iverson.

Iverson was willing to take an entire franchise on his back for a decade, and the Sixers' fairly regular playoff trips made this seem like a viable approach. That he was capable of this is nothing short of astounding; that he was willing to do it smacks of high-stakes narcissism. As big men, Garnett and Duncan are conditioned to trust the coach and work within his plan. Iverson, a darting, improvisatory ball handler, seems to trust only himself. He plays the game like it's personal, his moves guided by a combination of indignation, hunger, and suspicion. Perhaps because of his lack of size, or because he plays so hard, Iverson's teammates, bosses, and fans have all embraced the fact that the Sixers have been a one-man team for so long. Never has such a self-centered player been so celebrated.

To his credit, Iverson has mellowed some over the last few years. He finally relented and agreed to play point guard, that most magnanimous of positions. He upped his assist totals, improved his shot selection slightly, and cut down on his turnovers. Chances are, wherever he goes next he'll be expected to develop further in this direction. In Philadelphia, though, he dug himself too much of a hole; no team could ever coalesce as long as he held the franchise in thrall. As long as the Sixers organization identified itself with Iverson, it could continue to rely on his superhuman play and feed off of his charisma.

It remains to be seen if Iverson will ever be able to settle into a team, or if he can only excel on his own terms. He might ultimately end up a tragic figure—a player who desperately wants to win but is too uncompromising to fit in with the other four guys on the court. Allen Iverson is clearly passionate about the name on the front of his jersey, but the way he plays means that the world only notices the back. He probably doesn't mean to overshadow the franchise—it just happens when he's trying to do right by it.

Nathaniel Friedman is a frequent contributor to the basketball blog Free Darko.


Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2155512/


(y) (y) (y) Why the owners of the 76ers wasted SO many years on a gifted athlete who squandered his opportunities by getting several felonies - including gun possession, beating his wife and then throwing her out - naked :| :| of their expensive home - just to name a few of them. AND the jerk was ALWAYS hurt. (Or so he claimed.)

A.I thought that he did not need to go to practice. Definitely NOT a team player in the least, in my view.

+o( +o( I have been asking myself the past six years since moving back east - "What the hell is the big deal with this basketball player - who sets such a poor example for kids and young people? And why is he, after so many run-ins with the law - STILL making millions in salary and perks?"

This has been LONG overdue and I am delighted he's gone. (y) (y) (y)


+o( +o(

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2507539,00.html


;) I guess Kate reconsidered her turning down Prince William's proposal last year - when she said that she did not wish to "live in the constant lime light". From the photos of this event and her outfit? I'd say that she got WAY over it. ;)

;) ;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y) (y)


December 13, 2006

Op-Ed Columnist

Learning to Keep Learning

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I recently attended an Asia Society education seminar in Beijing, during which we heard Chinese educators talk about their “new national strategy.” It’s to make China an “innovation country” — with enough indigenous output to advance China “into the rank of innovation-oriented countries by 2020,” as Shang Yong, China’s vice minister of science and technology, put it.

I listened to this with mixed emotions. Part of me said: “Gosh, wouldn’t it be nice to have a government that was so focused on innovation — instead of one that is basically anti-science.” My other emotion was skepticism. Oh, you know the line: Great Britain dominated the 19th century, America dominated the 20th and now China is going to dominate the 21st. It’s game over.

Sorry, but I am not ready to cede the 21st century to China yet.

No question, China has been able to command an impressive effort to end illiteracy, greatly increasing its number of high school grads and new universities. But I still believe it is very hard to produce a culture of innovation in a country that censors Google — which for me is a proxy for curtailing people’s ability to imagine and try anything they want. You can command K-12 education. But you can’t command innovation. Rigor and competence, without freedom, will take China only so far. China will have to find a way to loosen up, without losing control, if it wants to be a truly innovative nation.

But while China can’t thrive without changing a lot more, neither can we. Ask yourself this: If the Iraq war had not dominated our politics, what would our last election have been about? It would have been about this question: Why should any employer anywhere in the world pay Americans to do highly skilled work — if other people, just as well educated, are available in less developed countries for half our wages?

If we can’t answer this question, in an age when more and more routine work can be digitized, automated or offshored, including white-collar work, “it is hard to see how, over time, we are going to be able to maintain our standard of living,” says Marc Tucker, who heads the National Center on Education and the Economy.

There is only one right answer to that question: In a globally integrated economy, our workers will get paid a premium only if they or their firms offer a uniquely innovative product or service, which demands a skilled and creative labor force to conceive, design, market and manufacture — and a labor force that is constantly able to keep learning. We can’t go on lagging other major economies in every math/science/reading test and every ranking of Internet penetration and think that we’re going to field a work force able to command premium wages. Freedom, without rigor and competence, will take us only so far.

Tomorrow, Mr. Tucker’s organization is coming out with a report titled “Tough Choices or Tough Times,” which proposes a radical overhaul of the U.S. education system, with one goal in mind: producing more workers — from the U.P.S. driver to the software engineer — who can think creatively.

“One thing we know about creativity is that it typically occurs when people who have mastered two or more quite different fields use the framework in one to think afresh about the other,” said Mr. Tucker. Thus, his report focuses on “how to make that kind of thinking integral to every level of education.”

That means, he adds, revamping an education system designed in the 1900s for people to do “routine work,” and refocusing it on producing people who can imagine things that have never been available before, who can create ingenious marketing and sales campaigns, write books, build furniture, make movies and design software “that will capture people’s imaginations and become indispensable for millions.”

That can’t be done without higher levels of reading, writing, speaking, math, science, literature and the arts. We have no choice, argues Mr. Tucker, because we have entered an era in which “comfort with ideas and abstractions is the passport to a good job, in which creativity and innovation are the key to the good life” and in which the constant ability to learn how to learn will be the only security you have.

Economics is not like war. It can be win-win. We, China, India and Europe can all flourish. But the ones who flourish most will be those who develop the best broad-based education system, to have the most people doing and designing the most things we can’t even imagine today. China still has to make some very big changes to get there — but so do we.


(y) (y) Amen.


SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:s :s :s


December 15, 2006

Reversing Trend, Big Drop Is Seen in Breast Cancer

By GINA KOLATA

Rates of the most common form of breast cancer dropped a startling 15 percent from August 2002 to December 2003, researchers reported yesterday.

The reason, they believe, may be because during that time, millions of women abandoned hormone treatment for the symptoms of menopause after a large national study concluded that the hormones slightly increased breast cancer risk.

The new analysis of breast cancer rates, by researchers from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and presented at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio, was based on a recent report by the National Cancer Institute on the cancer’s incidence.

Investigators cautioned that they would like to see the findings confirmed in other studies, including, perhaps, in data from Canada and Europe, and they would like to see what happens in the next few years.

“Epidemiology can never prove causality,” said Dr. Peter Ravdin, a medical oncologist at the M.D. Anderson center and one of the authors of the analysis.

But, he said, the hormone hypothesis seemed to perfectly explain the data and he and his colleagues could find no other explanation.

Donald Berry, head of the division of quantitative science at the cancer center and the senior investigator for the analysis, called the connection between the drop in rates and hormone use “astounding.”

Over all, for women of all ages and all breast cancer types, the incidence of the cancer, the second leading killer of women, dropped by 7 percent in 2003, or about 14,000 cases, the researchers said. It was the first time that breast cancer rates had fallen significantly, something experts said was especially remarkable because the rates had slowly inched up, year by year, since 1945.

But the decrease was most striking for women with so-called estrogen-positive tumors, which account for 70 percent of all breast cancers.

In July 2002, the Women’s Health Initiative, a large clinical trial looking at the use of one menopause drug, Prempro, made by Wyeth, found that women taking the drug had slightly higher breast cancer rates. The study’s findings were a shock to many women and their doctors. Until then, many had assumed that Prempro simply replaced the lost hormones of youth. Within six months, the drug’s sales had fallen by 50 percent.

Scientists knew that hormones could fuel the growth of estrogen-positive tumors, which carry receptors for estrogen on their cell surfaces. The hypothesis is that when women stopped taking menopausal hormones, tiny cancers already in their breasts were deprived of estrogen and stopped growing, never reaching a stage where they could have been seen on mammograms.

Other cancers may have regressed, making them undetectable. And, possibly, without hormones, cancers that would have gotten started may never have grown at all.

“This could well be the study of the year in cancer,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, director of the Georgia Cancer Center at Emory University. He added that it also might help explain why breast cancer rates were lower for black women than for white women — blacks, he said, were less likely to use hormones for menopause.

Dr. Brawley also said the findings might explain why cancer in black women was more lethal. Hormone-initiated cancers, he said, might be less deadly than those that arise on their own.

Candace Steele, a Wyeth spokeswoman, said in an e-mail message that “breast cancer is a complex disease and the causes are not known.

At this point, she said, “it is simply inappropriate to make any speculative statements” based on the analysis.

And, she added, “clearly, more studies are warranted.”

Dr. Berry said that the biggest effect overall was seen in women ages 50 to 69. That, he added, is the group most likely to have been taking menopausal hormones. In them, the incidence of breast cancer, including the type that grows in response to estrogen and the one that does not, fell by 12 percent in 2003, the latest year for which data is available.

The findings of the new analysis were supported by a separate study in California. That study, published in the Nov. 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found an even bigger drop in rates in that state and a correspondingly bigger drop in hormone use starting in July 2002.

Other researchers, who saw Dr. Berry’s analysis in advance of its presentation yesterday, said they found the hypothesis convincing.

Susan Ellenberg, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania, said the work was provocative. And, she added, “I certainly don’t see any obvious thing that says, ‘Oh, this can’t be right,’ or any obvious flaws.”

Until 2002, as many as a third of American women over age 50 were taking menopausal hormones. The drugs could relieve symptoms like hot flashes, and were thought to protect against heart disease. Because the pills were known to slow bone loss, some women used them to prevent osteoporosis. Some women and doctors also believed, without any good evidence, that the pills could keep skin youthful, preserve memory and make women energetic.

The use of estrogen to treat menopause took off in 1966, when a doctor, Robert Wilson, wrote the best-selling book “Feminine Forever” and flew across the country promoting it. He insisted that estrogen could keep women young, healthy and attractive. Women would be replacing a hormone they had lost at menopause just as diabetics replace the insulin their pancreas fails to make.

Before long, the menopause drugs, and in particular Prempro, from Wyeth, a combination of estrogen and progestins, became one of the most popular drugs in history.

The reversal of fortune came in July 2002 when the Women’s Health Initiative was halted. Its accumulating data indicated that Prempro was associated with a slight increase in breast cancer and in heart attacks, strokes and blood clots. The drug slightly decreased the risk of hip fractures and colon cancer, but those benefits were not enough to overcome its risks, the researchers said. Health authorities cautioned that similar pills must be regarded as having the same risks as Prempro until proven otherwise.

The very next year, 2003, the National Cancer Institute reported recently, there was a huge decline in breast cancer incidence. It was, Dr. Ravdin said, the largest decline for a single cancer in a single year that he was aware of. He and his colleagues wondered what was going on. The cancer kills an estimated 40,000 women a year and any decline in incidence can be important.

“We looked at all the possible explanations,” Dr. Berry said. He ticked them off: less mammography screening. But there was no sign of that. Increased use of drugs like tamoxifen that can prevent breast cancer; no evidence of that.

“There was some notion that it might be statins, but that was essentially debunked,” Dr. Berry said.

After July 2002, Dr. Berry said, the rate “dropped each month and it is exactly where you would expect it to be” if the declining use of menopausal hormones were the reason.

Dr. Barnett Kramer, the associate director for disease prevention at the National Institutes of Health, said that hormones were certainly the most plausible explanation for such an immediate effect on incidence. Most breast cancer is fueled by estrogen and studies have found that removing estrogen, with drugs like tamoxifen that block the hormone, sharply reduces breast cancer rates within a year.

That was also the conclusion of Christina Clarke, an epidemiologist at the Northern California Cancer Center, and her colleagues, when they analyzed the cancer’s rates in California. The investigators used data they had collected for a National Cancer Institute’s program and data from Kaiser Permanente, the health insurer.

Dr. Clarke said that they had data through 2004 and so could ask whether the decrease in cancer incidence in 2003 continued the next year. It did, she said, although it slowed somewhat, as might be expected.

The investigators found that the breast cancer incidence fell even more in California than in the rest of the country — the overall drop was 11 percent in 2003, compared with 7 percent nationally. And, Dr. Clarke said, more women in California also had been using hormone therapy than women in other states.

Kaiser Permanente’s prescriptions for hormone combinations like Prempro fell by two-thirds in 2003 and prescriptions for estrogen alone dropped by one-third, Dr. Clarke and her colleagues reported. (Estrogen without progestin can cause cancer of the uterine lining so should only be used by women whose uteruses have been removed. While there is some question about whether estrogen alone increases breast cancer risk, the Women’s Health Initiative did not find such an effect.)

The heaviest users of hormone therapy were women in affluent places like Marin County, where high breast cancer rates had long troubled women and researchers. Women in those areas also largely abandoned the treatments after the 2002 report and their cancer rates declined accordingly, Dr. Clarke said.

Dr. Marcia Stefanick, a professor of medicine at Stanford University and chairwoman of the steering committee for the Women’s Health Initiative, said she found the hormone argument persuasive and felt it helped clear up the mystery in Marin County.

“Everyone kept saying, What is it? What’s in the environment?” she said. Now, she said, it is becoming clear. “The best explanation is hormone therapy.”



:D :D :D What great news. After saying "no" each year to my doctor about going on HRT, I am definitely one grateful lady who suffered through the daily symptoms of "estrogen withdrawal" - otherwise known as that "change of life".;) ;) Eleven years and counting but I'm still not going on any hormones - this study proves the risks are not worth it. And things are improving this past year.

I cannot wait until I freeze in the cold like some womyn claim! It's a bummer feeling hot and what a crimp that causes in my wardrobe choices! :| :| :)

I'll simply buy more lace-trimmed hankies and gorgeous fold out fans if I need to. :) But I think the worst is over.:D


Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:o :o

Mom-and-pop shops feel 'big-box' pressure

By SARAH J. BOGGAN TRIBUNE

East Valley Tribune

Ed and Margie Chavez are struggling in Queen Creek's changing business climate. The business owners are one of many mom-and-pop shops that make up a majority of the town's economy - but that's changing. With Queen Creek's soonto-be developed town center, an influx of "big-box" retailers will be coming to town and competing directly with the town's traditionally small, homegrown business community.

The Chavezes have owned QC Carpet and Blinds for two years and say the new Home Depot on Power Road in Queen Creek is affecting their business, but they have always competed with home improvement stores in neighboring towns.

Though customers can sometimes find items for less money, Ed Chavez said people don't realize that by not buying from local businesses, they also are making an impact on their community.

"We think small businesses are the backbone of the community," Chavez said. "We give back to the community, and we have a hard time doing that if people aren't supporting us."

Margie Chavez said they compete by offering personalized customer service and by keeping prices low and offering different, high-quality products that aren't always found at more generic, national retailers.

The shift in the Queen Creek business community was foreshadowed when planned commercial developments such as Queen Creek Marketplace and Cornerstone at Queen Creek began the development process several years ago, said the town's economic development director Doreen Cott.

Both projects, scheduled to break ground next year, are part of Queen Creek's planned town center northwest of Ellsworth and Ocotillo roads and are expected to bring in large-scale retailers such as Wal-Mart Supercenters and a Super Target.

Other commercial projects going through the development process now are Queen Creek Fiesta, south of the southwest corner of Rittenhouse and Ellsworth roads, and The Shoppes Indigo Trails Projects at the southeast corner of Ocotillo and Rittenhouse roads.

"Like everyone else, we're watching this shift occur," Cott said. "We're seeing a good mix of projects, and that's the shift that's been in motion: Queen Creek being primarily residential to now offering retail, services and employment opportunities."

Cott said a national retail presence could benefit smaller businesses by attracting passthrough traffic to stop and shop in Queen Creek.

"I think there's a place for both types of businesses in the community - a place for the larger retailers and the small, independent businesses," she said. "One complements the other. Hopefully larger retailers will help drive activity to smaller businesses and help increase their sales and visibility."

Queen Creek Chamber of Commerce president Vince Davis said most chamber members are mom-and-pop companies with five or fewer employees, but he has been seeing more interest from larger corporations.

Davis also said there is a misconception when it comes to the nationally recognized corporate names.

"The interesting things about national retailers is that some are franchises so they're still mom and pop," Davis said. "Just because they have a national type name, doesn't mean they're not mom and pop."

The Chavezes' store needs to set itself apart to survive, Davis said, noting that they are on the right track by focusing on service and carrying a unique selection because they don't have marketing support from a mother company.

The chamber works with smaller businesses on marketing education and support.

"We encourage them to look at other options and approaches - help them find a niche," Davis said. "You have to find a weakness in the competitor and supply what they're not."


URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16237073/


(y) (y) (y) Mom and pop stores are my primary sources of retail purchases.(f)


Season's Greetings,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :)

http://www.erikhenne.com/images/leavenworth%20on%20christmas%20lights%20light%20fe stival%20winter%20snow%20washington%20sledding%20n ight.jpg


http://www.pansophist.com/osmch7.jpg


http://www.christmas-day.org/gifs/christmas-lights.jpg


http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/christmas/images/pantperthog_house4_400x300.jpg


http://www.christmasonknobhill.com/Christmas0107.JPG


(l) (p) Beautiful:

http://brucearmstrong.net/new/Christmas%20Lights%20-%20Including%20the%20garage.JPG


(h) http://img1.travelblog.org/Photos/142/2425/t/7570-Christmas-lights--Medellin-0.jpg


http://www.swedenfreezer.com/avr/images/AVR%20CHRISTMAS%20LIGHT%20TRAIN.jpg



(l) I want to BE HERE:

http://www.tsof.edu.au/projects/aissalanguage/aissa2004T2/sonjaaissa2/images/A%20visit%20to%20Germany/christmas%20lights.jpg



Lights on a Tiny Tree in the Forest:

http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/FogStock/Christmas-Lights-on-a-Tiny-Tree-in-the-Forest-Photographic-Print-C11851120.jpeg



Amazingly lovely: http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/shenews/images/germ.jpg


Pretty: http://www.pfcona.org/images/17001_Jigsaw.jpg


Geneva: http://myswitzerland.igougo.com/photos/journal_photos/ChristmasLights.JPG


:) Enjoy! Have a wonderful Sunday evening and start of your week. (f)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l) (l)


http://images.worldofstock.com/slides/TAU2519.jpg


http://www.genepeach.com/sf/i/2.jpg


http://fivezerofive.com/main/media/1/20051223-luminarias.jpg


http://katy-alejandro.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/lumin.jpg.w180h112.jpg


BREATHTAKING Evening Sky:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/tomas/photos/springbreak2005_baldy/aan.jpg


(k) (k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(*) (*) (*) (*) (*)


(~) Little Voice 1998

Telephone repairman Ewan McGregor and music promoter Michael Caine play second fiddle to Little Voice (Jane Horrocks), a young woman whose beautiful pipes could pack a thousand cabarets. Trouble is, she can only sing along to records in her room. This British charmer was a sleeper hit among the indie set thanks to its winning mix of romance, hope and humor.

Cast: Brenda Blethyn, Jane Horrocks, Ewan McGregor, Philip Jackson, Annette Badland and Michael Caine!

Review:

I fell in love with "Little Voice" when I saw it in the theatre with a friend. What a complete delight to be able to see it again on DVD and fall even deeper in love with the story of a painfully shy and very talented girl LV (Jane Horrocks) who lives with her brassy, coarse, vulgar mother Mira (Brenda Blethyn). Into their lives comes snake-oil salesman Ray Say (Michael Caine) who only wants some easy "slap and tickle" and his ticket to the big time entertainment sweepstakes. Ray hears LV sing an astonishing array of cabaret tunes including Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Bassey and knows this is his ticket out and up. He manipulates both mum (who has no idea how to relate to LV) and daughter into giving him what he wants, a performance on the stage at the local show palace (Mr. Boo's) owned by the greasy Mr. Boo (Jim Broadbent). But of course, nothing ever goes as planned. In the meantime, shy telephone man and homing pigeon trainer Billy (Ewan McGregor) meets and falls in love with LV. She reciprocates in the way that only a extremely shy person can. Special kudos to Annette Badland who portrays the great lumbering neighbour untalkative Sadie with sensitivity. Sadie "gets" LV but Sadie's not quite sure why. She steps in to offer support expressing her confusion and concern through her very expressive eyes and face. Jane Horrocks did all her own impressions for the movie, showing a dramatic range of skill heretofore hidden behind the ditzy Bubbles in the BBC's Absolutely Fabulous series. Her blow up with her mother near the end had me applauding and giggling. Her interaction with Ewan McGregor is touching, as they reach across the distance of shyness to make contact. The very talented cast of this movie makes it one to watch repeatedly, giving you the chance to fall in love again and again.


**********************************

Jane Horrocks (who plays the role of Little Voice and can she impersonate the great DIVAS!!):


http://images.google.com/images?q=Jane+Horrocks&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title


http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/highlights/001027_horrocks.shtml


http://film.guardian.co.uk/Player/Player_Page/0,,41864,00.html


http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800019129&cf=bios&intl=us


That this actress *sings* and I could swear that whoever she's "impressioning" - is in the room! 5 stars! (again and again)

Enjoy!

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :)


Dazzling Holiday Lights

Nothing celebrates the spirit of Christmas like a blazing display of holiday lights. Whether they're strung across a front porch or illuminating the Empire State Building, the bright colors and warm glow of these lights bring cheer to all.

On Air (et/pt):

DEC 21 2006
@ 01:00 PM


DEC 22 2006
@ 07:00 PM


DEC 23 2006
@ 02:00 AM


http://travel.discovery.com/tvlistings/episode.jsp?episode=0&cpi=117556&gid=0&channel=TRV


<:o) <:o)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :)


http://www.nationalchristmascenter.com/


(y) (y)


(k) 's and Have a Cool Yule,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :| :|


:) :) :)


http://usa.hermes.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10202&catalogId=10052&langId=-1&categoryId=10714&productId=19703&leftCategoryId=10707&topCategoryId=10702&nbItem=0



http://usa.hermes.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10202&catalogId=10052&langId=-1&categoryId=10742&productId=25937&leftCategoryId=10707&topCategoryId=10702&nbItem=0



Wide enamel bracelet in silver and palladium plated (2.5" diameter):

http://usa.hermes.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10202&catalogId=10052&langId=-1&categoryId=10796&productId=17055&leftCategoryId=10769&topCategoryId=10702&nbItem=0



DOG COLLAR:

http://usa.hermes.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10202&catalogId=10052&langId=-1&categoryId=25451&leftCategoryId=25451&topCategoryId=10980&nbItem=0



(y) (y) (y) Most of the above items are over the top such as the dog collar - but I could see spending $350 for a gorgeous scarf, especially one that I'd wear often.

:) Many years back, someone explained to me how to pronouce Hermes correctly....."it is like saying "air mess", (as in when two air planes collide). Yikes! But I never forgot how to pronouce it either. ;)


Warmest holiday wishes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

;) ;) ;)


WONDER LAND

By DANIEL HENNINGER Wall Street Journal

The F-Word Finally Falls From Favor

December 15, 2006; Page A20

The most positive trend of 2006 (surely there had to be one) was described in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month by Jeff Zaslow in a piece titled, "Comedy Comes Clean." Notwithstanding the fact that the movie "Borat" was a "scatological sensation," Mr. Zaslow described stand-up comedy's new turn toward humor passed through a sieve of normal decency. My favorite, from comedian Michael Jr.: "Someone asked me if I'm pro-gay. I'm not pro-gay or amateur gay. I didn't even know they had a league."

For some comics it was a business decision. Cleaner comedy is an easier sell at corporate events, theme parks, cruise lines and the like. Others felt that younger audiences had by now marinated for so long in the verbal sludge served at comedy clubs and on cable television that they found straighter comedy to be, well, new.

Admittedly, this trend is swimming against a strong tide. Then Michael Richards exploded, and the bad-word wars escalated.

Until recently, Michael Richards would have lived unto eternity as Kramer, the physically befuddled scarecrow on "Seinfeld." Now Mr. Richards will lug a fat, unfunny footnote through life. As we all know, he's the guy who went off at a black patron at the Laugh Factory club in L.A., yelling at some length from the stage about the "nigger." This in retrospect is being explained as an uncontrolled extension of his comic "rage." Of course it ended up as a video on the Web.

Now if Mr. Richards had managed to limit his put-down to 25 or 30 well placed f-words, none of this would have been a problem. No one would have noticed. But like Mel Gibson in the wee hours, Mr. Richards had allowed a really and truly bad word to come out of his mouth -- a forbidden word. His verbal trespass was so great, so mortal, that he sought absolution from one liberalism's cardinal confessors, Jesse Jackson.

In the wake of Michael Richards's bad outing, some comedians said they would no longer use the n-word. The owner of the comedy club announced a ban on the word and said any comedian using it could be exiled or even fined. This in turn produced a pro-n-word backlash from comedian Dick Gregory, author of an autobiography called "Nigger," who said a ban would "destroy history."

The rules of the conversational road have been under a lot of pressure for at least 30 years. On the one hand, it was handed down that certain language and words were "hurtful" to some people, so colleges and others created speech codes. Paradoxically, this organized suppression of language happened alongside a simultaneous "liberation" of street language, specifically the f-word. Not to mention the c-, d-, a-, m- and s-words. (Is there a u-word?)

One of the great books on language is Eric Partridge's "A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English," first published in 1937. Within it one may find all the famously lettered unconventional words. Usage of the f-word dates to at least the 15th century, suggesting that the f-word is useful. And it is. Or was.

Until Eddie Murphy killed it.

In 1987 Eddie Murphy released a movie version of his comedy act, "Eddie Murphy Raw." Forget George Carlin. Forget David Mamet. "Raw" was the Hiroshima of dirty words. Resistance stopped.

One may find a large sampling from "Raw" on the Internet Movie Database. "Raw" was very funny. In fact, Mr. Murphy during the act even reflected, so to speak, on the way he was using these words. He both included some mockery of Bill Cosby for presumably objecting to the act's excessive profanity but also satirized its use on the street.

Now the f-word was really out of the barnyard, where it had had its uses for 500 years, and was running around in public, where it didn't belong. Comedians may only reflect the world around them, but they also "popularize" that world, make it seem normal. Like the man who came to dinner, Eddie Murphy's words wouldn't leave. It became possible for 13-year-old girls to sit next to grandmothers on subways, discussing, say, a bag of potato chips, as "s---." This wasn't progress.

Comedians will do whatever works, so if they are now saying toilet humor isn't even fit for toilets, we have to believe them. I know who to blame for this, too. Not hip-hop. HBO.

Watching "The Sopranos" on HBO a couple seasons ago, it became apparent that these once-powerful, four-letter exclamation points had become the characters' entire vocabulary. Paulie Walnuts, Tony, Christopher, even Carmela seemed to be "communicating" in some arcane f-language. I had no idea what they were talking about. And so stopped watching. Someone said, "You should check out 'Deadwood' on HBO." I won't, but there is a Web site that undertook the challenge to do an f-count of "Deadwood," concluding that the average number, per episode, in one season was 87.5. Call it deadword.

Can we blame this verbal morass on the Supreme Court? Maybe. Back in 1973, in Papish, the court ruled on a college that tried to ban a student newspaper showing a cop raping the Statue of Liberty. The college had a rule that students should observe "generally accepted standards of conduct." It lost, 6-3.

Chief Justice Warren Burger's long-forgotten dissent is relevant to a society today that vulgarizes simple conversation while euphemizing or banning its darker thoughts. Justice Burger defended the right of students to criticize their school or government "in vigorous, or even harsh, terms." But he called the student publication "obscene and infantile." A university, he suggested, is " an institution where individuals learn to express themselves in acceptable, civil terms. We provide that environment to the end that students may learn the self-restraint necessary to the functioning of a civilized society and understand the need for those external restraints to which we must all submit if group existence is to be tolerable."

"Tolerable." That's an interesting, old-fashioned word. It's not quite the same as "tolerant," is it? As t-words go, I think I prefer "tolerable" to the current alternatives.


(y) (y) (y)


(f) (f)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:s :s


Regifting: A Scrooge Move No More?

Web Sites Aim to Cash In On Now-Acceptable Practice Popular With Young People

By ERIKA LOVLEY Wall Street Journal

December 19, 2006

"Regifting," once a furtive practice, has become socially acceptable -- and a slew of Web sites have sprung up that offer advice and seek to profit from the trend.

The phenomenon -- which consists of giving an unwanted gift to someone else -- has become particularly popular among young professionals.

"We don't always have as much money as we'd like to, but we still want to give nice gifts," says Vicky Steel of Hoboken, N.J. The 27-year-old event planner gave a manager an unused pair of Swarovski crystal candleholders when her budget was too tight for Christmas presents last year. She had received them from a friend.

"I had just done a career transition and was looking for any way possible to put money toward my apartment rent," she says. Besides, "I didn't have any place to put crystal candleholders."

Cutting costs and long work hours, along with pressure to participate in office gift-giving, are among the reasons young professionals cite for shopping in their closets rather than at the mall.

Many holiday office parties include Secret Santa or Yankee swaps, requiring each participant to anonymously contribute a gift. These traditions are prime occasions for young people to unload unwanted items, such as bottles of wine and fondue sets. Vases, paintings and picture frames are popular regifts, too, according to a survey commissioned by Braun's Tassimo Hot Beverage System, a unit of Procter & Gamble Co.

Christen Brown, 25, of New York gave a co-worker a fancy mirror compact from Saks Fifth Avenue that she had received from a friend. "I already had a mirror in my purse, and I just didn't have a need for it," she says. "It saves money if you can't use a gift that's nice and can give it to someone else."

A number of Web sites are selling regifting-themed items. NoRegifting.com links to gifts, such as personalized iPods, that merchants claim "will never be regifted." Swapgift.com allows customers to buy, sell or swap unwanted gift cards from more than 800 merchants. FrugalVillage.net offers advice on setting up a "gift closet" of presents you intend to give to others.

YouNique Wares, an online gift store (www.youniquewares.com), offers a joke Regift Bag for $3.99. Dubbed "The Bag That Keeps on Giving," it comes with a name list to keep track of who the gift (and the bag) was given to before. Online booksellers including Amazon.com Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc. offer -- in time for Christmas delivery -- "The Art of Regifting," a paperback by Barbara Bitela on the do's and don'ts of the practice. Also cashing in on the craze is a country band called the Regifters, who release a Christmas-themed album every year.

Some analysts contend that retailers indirectly fuel the regifting trend by adopting stricter return policies. Some prominent retailers, such as Best Buy Co., are charging 15% restocking fees and shortened return times. Without a receipt, most gifts are returnable for store credit only, encouraging customers to hold on to the item for a later celebration.

Retailers will lose about $3.5 billion in fraudulent returns this holiday season, and 8.8% of holiday gifts are expected to be returned, according to the National Retail Federation.

Regifting went public in 1991 when Kitty Kelley's biography of Nancy Reagan -- a regifter -- appeared, and was given its name in a 1995 "Seinfeld" episode. The trend has become an acceptable social practice -- and has picked up speed with younger people.

Six in 10 people between the ages of 25 and 34 report they have regifted before and plan to regift in the future, according to the Tassimo survey. Nearly three-quarters say they regifted because they felt the item was perfect for the new recipient. Three in 10 say they lacked money to buy a gift or simply ran out of time. The survey, conducted in early August, interviewed 1,505 U.S. adults ages 25 to 55.

Regifting serves to make gift-giving -- a highly inefficient custom, economists say -- a little more economical. "People choose the wrong things for gifts. From the recipient standpoint, gift-giving is a terrible way to allocate resources," says Joel Waldfogel, chairman of the Business and Public Policy Department at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, who has studied gift-giving.


:| :| :|


:o :o

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

|-) |-) |-) |-) |-)


TIME Names `You,' User-Generated Content,Person Of The Year

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

December 16, 2006 9:02 p.m.


NEW YORK (AP)--Congratulations! You are the Time magazine "Person of the Year."

The annual honor for 2006 went to each and every one of us, as Time cited the shift from institutions to individuals - citizens of the new digital democracy, as the magazine put it. The winners this year were anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web.

"If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people," said Richard Stengel, who took over as Time's managing editor earlier this year. "But if you choose millions of people, you don't have to justify it to anyone."

The magazine did cite 26 "People Who Mattered," from North Korean dictator Kim Jon Il to Pope Benedict XVI to the troika of U.S. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

And Stengel said if the magazine had decided to go with an individual, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the likely choice. "It just felt to me a little off selecting him," Stengel said.

The 2006 "Person of the Year" package hits newsstands Monday. The cover shows a white keyboard with a mirror for a computer screen where buyers can see their reflection.

It was not the first time the magazine, owned by Time Warner Inc. (TWX) went away from naming an actual person for its "Person of the Year." In 1966, the 25-and-under generation was cited; in 1975, U.S. women were named; and in 1982, the computer was chosen.

"I always love it when it's a person - and it is a person, not a computer or something like that," Stengel said. "We just felt there wasn't a single person who embodied this phenomenon."

Last year's winners were Bill and Melinda Gates and rock star Bono, who were cited for their charitable work and activism aimed at reducing global poverty and improving world health.


(n) My opinion is that TIME wimped out. ;)

(f) (f)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :|


:o :o :o

EBay Steps Back From Asia, Will Shutter China Site

By VAUHINI VARA and LORETTA CHAO Wall Sreet Journal

December 19, 2006

EBay Inc., in its second big pullback from Asia, is shutting down its main Web site in China and replacing it with a site that would be largely run by a Beijing-based Internet company, say people familiar with the matter.

The San Jose, Calif., company plans to announce as early as today that it is taking a 49% stake in the new site in partnership with online portal and wireless operator Tom Online Inc., these people say. Tom Online would hold the other 51%. Up until now, eBay had operated its own auction site in China.

Because of the potential for growth, China had been an important market for eBay, an early darling of Silicon Valley that has recently undergone an aggressive international expansion. But eBay's experience highlights how difficult it is for U.S. companies to adapt to different consumer cultures and to compete with savvy local rivals. China is the world's second-largest Internet market by users behind the U.S., though eBay's China site represents fewer than 3% of its total listings, according to Deutsche Bank.

While eBay has seen some success in Europe, its Asian expansion has been rocky. EBay expanded into Japan in 1999 but was five months behind rival Yahoo Inc., which launched its own auction site that year in partnership with Japan's Softbank Corp. EBay never caught up with Yahoo and left Japan in 2002.

In China, eBay acquired online-auction company EachNet for $150 million in 2003, after making an initial $30 million investment the previous year. Last year, it invested another $100 million to further its ambitions in China. But it ranks second to the TaoBao unit of Alibaba.com Corp., a closely held Internet company based in Hangzhou. TaoBao had 67% of the Chinese auction market for the first six months of the year, compared with eBay EachNet's 29%, according to China Internet Network Information Centre, a quasigovernmental agency. Yahoo last year paid about $1 billion for a 40% stake in Alibaba.

In September, Martin Wu, chief executive of eBay's Chinese unit, resigned abruptly. An eBay spokesman said at the time that Mr. Wu completed the tenure that he had been scheduled to be at the company.

"Working with Tom should be a good thing for eBay, so they have a company in China that understands the local market," said Henry Yang, chief executive of research firm iResearch Consulting Group. He said eBay has had a hard time gaining market share from rival Alibaba's TaoBao, which he said is "doing the best in online auctions" in China.

EBay will initially contribute $40 million to the venture, and Tom will contribute $20 million.

According to eBay's data, its international business last year accounted for 50% of the total value of goods sold through its sites, but the value of goods sold on the China site grew more slowly than on most of its other overseas sites.

Like other onetime Internet stars, eBay has struggled the past few years with slowing growth as new competitors have emerged. To be sure, eBay's growth is still strong: It reported third-quarter revenue of $1.45 billion, up 31% from the previous year. But growth has slowed from the torrid rates of the '90s and early '00s. So far this year, eBay's shares are down 25%.

The new Tom-eBay Chinese Web site will launch in 2007, says a person familiar with the situation. EBay will maintain its own site for "cross border" trading, for Chinese users who are selling to buyers outside of China. Tom CEO Wang Lei Lei will be CEO of the joint venture, and Jeff Liao, CEO of eBay EachNet, will hold an unspecified management role at the joint venture and will also continue to run the site for cross-border trading. EBay doesn't plan any layoffs.


8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

;) ;)


First Jobs

Celebrity salad days

You never forget your first job (although some of us would like to). With this amusing time-waster, you try to match the celebrity with their maiden voyage in employment. You think Donald Trump started out with a paper route?

You want fries with that?

http://googolplex.cuna.org/21654/cnote/firstjob/start.htm


:) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:o :o


Guinness World Records

Fastest, biggest, weirdest

The world's greatest repository of pointless knowledge and bar bet fodder is now online. Who's jumped the highest, grown the longest hair, flown the fastest, eaten the most hot dogs, and more—it's all here.

Bet ya didn't know... http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/default.aspx


(y) (y) (y)


SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:) :)


Game: Snowball Fight

Mittens on?

OK, like, it's winter—cool! Players are taking sides, and you're on the red team—yeah! Your job? Pummel the green team with as many snowballs as you can. Excellent! Woo-hoo! Now...go be a kid again.

You guys are gonna get snowed!


http://snowball-fight.freeonlinegames.com/


(y) (y) (y)


SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D

FBI Files

J. Edgar & you

Locked away for years and out of sight form the public, now you can search for and view real FBI files of celebrities, famous events, and unexplained phenomena. Not too sure about Jimmy Hoffa, but you're bound to be able to dig up some stuff on Elvis.

Flashlight on, Scully


http://www.fbi-files.com/


:) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

;) ;)


Wooden Nickel

Grandpa wasn't making it up...

Learn about America's storied wooden nickel—first "minted" during the Great Depression when local banks failed—and order your own custom-made currency from San Antonio, TX, home of "The World's Biggest Wooden Nickel" as seen in Ripley's Believe it or Not!

Have money to burn!


http://www.wooden-nickel.net/


:) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

;) ;)


http://mdewtree.com/


:o

|-)

;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :| :|


http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=ipod


:o :o What folks won't try. :)


Happy Holidays!

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

:s :s :s


Q U O T E D

"Google users are dweebs. Yahoo users are horndogs. And AOL users are geezers."

-- "Does IT Matter?" author Nick Carr extrapolates a baseline demographic from the Google, Yahoo and AOL zeitgeists.



http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/12/dweebs_horndogs.php



^o)^o)^o)^o) VERY strange article, indeed! I don't agree with this guy either based primarily on his simplistic assumptions and generalizations. |-) |-)

Ho, ho, ho....I mean ho, hum. |-)


Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)