Quotes, URL's, Links And References-by:older Femmes, Butches, Ftms, Mtfs, Queer, Etc. [Archive] - Page 14

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:45 PM

(y) (y)

January 14, 2007

Check In, Check Out

Hong Kong: The Mandarin Oriental

By STUART EMMRICH

THE BASICS

The Mandarin, long a mainstay of the Hong Kong luxury hotel scene, reopened in late September after a $140 million, nine-month renovation and with an opening date picked by the hotel’s feng shui master. The hotel is, indeed, spiffy, but all that matters is the moment you open the door to your room and take in the breathtaking, panoramic view of bustling Victoria Harbour — a sight that even the most jaded travelers find mesmerizing. No one will be surprised if you blurt out, “I am never leaving this room.”

THE SCENE

The sparkling, airy lobby, with its inviting seating area off to the side, was largely untouched in the renovation, which should be reassuring for old China hands who have long used the Mandarin as a convenient spot for business meetings or to rendezvous with friends from out of town. The rooftop bar, the M bar, is jammed in the early evening with elegantly dressed workers from the nearby financial district (the Norman Foster-designed HSBC building is a block away) mixing with guests from the hotel. You can tell the latter because they’re the ones staring out the windows.

LOCATION

Could not be better. The terminal for the fast-speed train to the Hong Kong airport is just two blocks away, as is the terminal for ferries to Kowloon, a rite of passage for any first-time visitor. (Go at sunset and make sure you get a ticket for the upper deck.) The bars and restaurants of Lan Kwai Fong, along with the antiques stores of Hollywood Road, are about a 15-minute walk away.

ROOMS

Outfitted in rich, dark woods and elegant furnishings, the spacious rooms come with all the modern conveniences — a CD player, a jack for your iPod, high-speed Internet access, a flat-screen TV, even a set of binoculars for that harbor view — plus an impossibly complicated message system. Here’s how it works. Step 1: You retrieve a voice mail from your phone, which directs you to the message system accessible through your TV. Step 2: You turn on the TV, and 10 minutes later — after getting the screen cursor to work properly — you read your text message, which tells you to call the front desk. Step 3: You call the front desk, which puts you on hold while they find your message. And what is it? A reminder that the checkout time the next day is 11 a.m. Couldn’t someone just have said that in the first place? (On the other hand, when that flat-screen TV mysteriously stopped working, a call to the front desk resulted in a visit by two maintenance men within six minutes.) Bathrooms come with both a capacious soaking tub and a large shower stall and a choice of two kinds of bathrobes — plush terry cloth or soft silk — await in the large closets.

ROOM SERVICE

A pot of delicious Chinese tea was delivered, unbidden, within 10 minutes of check-in, and breakfast ordered the next day at 9:06 a.m., and promised “about a half an hour from now,” arrived 19 minutes later.

AMENITIES

The hotel has a full-service spa and a huge gym with more than a dozen stationary bicycles and treadmills (each with its own TV screen), and a full complement of weights. One odd thing: there are four TV monitors in the weight room showing demonstration videos of how to use the Kinesis weight-and-pulley system, but not a single mirror so that you can check your form or admire your abs. (Well, maybe that’s a good thing.)

BOTTOM LINE

Standard rooms start at about 3,600 Hong Kong dollars (about $450 at 7.94 Hong Kong dollars to the American dollar), but there’s probably no point in staying at the Mandarin unless you’re in one of its harbor-view rooms. Those start at 4,500 Hong Kong dollars; 5 Connaught Road, Central Hong Kong; (866) 526-6567; www.mandarinoriental.com/hongkong.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/travel/14check.html?ref=travel

(l) (l) Back in 1986-87 while traveling here on business, I stayed here a couple of times. I must say that their restaurant was truly a 5 star one - which was unusual in my experiences, for a hotel to have a great restaurant. :)

:| Can you believe the prices now? Yikes.

Peace,

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

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:48 PM

:s...:| ...:o ....:$ ....|-)

January 12, 2007

Ahead

Meditation Retreats Calm Those Jangled Nerves

By BETH GREENFIELD

FINDING calm and clarity is a tall order for frenzied urbanites, but there’s help — in the form of guidance, serenity and natural beauty — at meditation retreats. Buddhist, yogic or eclectic, most provide anxious beginning meditators with instruction and practice. Several are scheduled around the country in the next few weeks.

“People will say, ‘I can’t sit still for five seconds, let alone sit in a dark room for 20 minutes!’ ” said Mark Thornton, author of “Meditation in a New York Minute: Super Calm for the Super Busy” (Sounds True, 2005), who will lead a weekend retreat in March at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Mass. “But that’s a misconception,” he added. His specialty is showing how to incorporate meditation into daily lives. “I help teach people how to meditate an hour a day, but cumulatively,” Mr. Thornton said. “It shifts the entire orientation of the day, finding peace and calm at different times.”

Also at Kripalu in March, Bhavani Lorraine Nelson will lead a three-day retreat for both beginners and experienced meditators who may need a refresher. It will include chanting, guided meditation and an exploration of the common “five hindrances” to concentration generally referred to in Buddhist meditation: sensual desire, ill will, sloth, restlessness and doubt.

For jangled city dwellers whose stress levels demand relief earlier than March, Karmê Chöling, a Tibetan-Buddhist retreat center in Barnet, Vt., in the Green Mountains, offers a retreat called “Simplicity: Meditation for Real Life,” Jan. 19 to 26. It’s designed as a weeklong program, but participants aren’t required to stay for the full time. “We’re very much oriented to Westerners who are in the world and busy with families and such,” said John Rockwell, a resident teacher at Karmê Chöling. This retreat consists of writing, walking, sitting and discussion, he explained, and takes its lead from each group’s particular chemistry. “It’s very flexible, and can be rigorous or loose, depending on the people.”

The flexibility is also intended to ease the way for beginners hesitant about looking within themselves — a common fear of a natural part of the process, Mr. Rockwell said. “Meditation is not just for stress reduction, but it also encourages us to look directly at what’s going on with our experience, now.”

Tibetan Buddhist teachings also inspire the work of the Shambhala Mountain Center, on 600 rural acres in Colorado about 110 miles north of Denver, which is offering a February meditation workshop called “Shambhala Training Level I: The Art of Being Human.” Deborah Knox, a publicist for the center, describes it as a calming place of natural beauty. “You get a magical sense of the elements that’s almost otherworldly,” she said.

For a more rigorous, traditional vibe, seekers of peace can check out the Zen Mountain Monastery near Woodstock in the Catskills, which follows the ancient Buddhist practices of China and Japan. Its “Introduction to Zen Training” weekend retreat introduces the Eight Gates of Zen, a modern version of the original Buddhist Eightfold Path, with a program that begins with 4:45 a.m. wakeups and continues with meditation, chanting, lectures, traditional brushwork, yoga and the rare opportunity to have a private, face-to-face meeting with a Zen master. It’s held monthly and sometimes attracts as many as 40 people who are willing to stick to the strict schedule and exacting instruction. “They’re trying to get to the root of their spiritual quest,” said Ryushin Marchaj, the head monk.

Even more intense is the Nine-Night Retreat of the Mountain Stream Meditation Center in the Sierra foothills of northern California, held in a lodge that overlooks the Sacramento River. John Travis, who founded the center, leads Vipasanna, a method that seeks to achieve calm and insight through focus on the breath and alternating periods of sitting and walking silent meditation. The daily schedule starts at 6:15 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m.

It’s not for most novices. “ ‘Beginner’ lots of times means you’ve sat with local groups but haven’t done retreats,” Catrinka Holland, the retreat manager, said. But for those who work through it, there is spiritual rejuvenation, she said. “It’s just affirming of innate intelligence,” she added, “of who we are underneath all the helter-skelter.”

(8) (8) When (ap) is not an option, putting on some music is great soul food. So is looking at beautiful photos. :)

Have a delightful rest of your Saturday and weekend. (f)

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

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:49 PM

(y) (y)

January 14, 2007

National Perspectives

From Grain Elevator to Dream House

By JIM ROBBINS

BOZEMAN, Mont.

AS Jill Baumler stood in the “head house” at the very top of her grain elevator, with a large herd of bison visible through the window behind her, she pointed out the metal contraption that used to gravity-feed grain to the warren of rooms in the building below. “They could turn the spout and pour the grain into one of 13 holes,” she said, “and it would fill up one of the 13 bins.”

Now, after more than seven years of do-it-yourself renovation, the 13 storage bins, which once held up to 28,000 bushels of grain, have been transformed into a towering six-story antique-filled home that Ms. Baumler; her husband, Bob Mannisto; and their four dogs plan to move into this month.

“It’s been a huge learning experience,” said Ms. Baumler, whose husband did much of the rough carpentry while she did the finish work. “When I am done, my hammer is being hung up, never to be taken down.”

Buildings like theirs were often the tallest structures on the featureless plains of the West and Midwest, and were once a sign of prosperity, a symbol of abundance being brought in from the fields.

But now they are outmoded and many have been abandoned or torn down. An estimated 27,000 of these structures dotted the farm states in the 1930s, though fewer than half remain today, according to Bruce Selyem, the president and founder of the Country Grain Elevator Historical Society.

At least a few of the remaining elevators — along with grain bins and silos — have been turned into homes or offices or adapted for other uses. One elevator, in Stillwater, Minn., was turned into a climbing gym. Some much larger grain elevators have been turned into hotels.

Yet some of the most striking conversions are residential. In Minneapolis, for example, a large terminal elevator with 12 silos is being adapted into a 20-story, 229-unit mixed-income housing project called Van Cleve Court Apartments East. Mr. Selyem said he was aware of perhaps a dozen instances in which the buildings at the base of a smaller elevator had been remodeled, but only a few in which the elevators themselves had been adapted. “It’s a huge project, and you can’t do it cheaply,” he said.

The 70-foot-tall grain elevator owned by Ms. Baumler and Mr. Mannisto was built in 1914 by Charles Anceney Sr., a rancher who saw promise in the soil of the Camp Creek Hills of southwestern Montana. He also envisioned a town called Anceney, if the Northern Pacific Railway could be lured to build a spur to his property. It could not, so he built the line himself.

Though a town never materialized, the grain elevator continued to operate until the 1980s. Ms. Baumler bought it in 1993 for $10,000. The area, 14 miles west of fast-growing Bozeman, is rural, and will stay that way. The media tycoon Ted Turner bought Charles Anceney’s old Flying D ranch for his bison herd, and it surrounds the elevator on three sides.

Ms. Baumler acknowledges that when she began retrofitting her elevator, she was somewhat naïve about how long it might take. “I thought it would take two or three years,” she said. “It has taken more than seven.” The couple say they have not tallied all their costs, in hours or dollars.

One of the bins has been set aside for an elevator, Ms. Baumler said, while all the plumbing and other infrastructure have their own dedicated bins.

The first and second floors have not been remodeled yet. The biggest floor, on the bottom, where trucks used to dump grain, will be turned into a Victorian game room. The third floor, where renovations are completed, has a roomy kitchen and dining room.

The next floor up is the master bedroom, dark green with an antique white pressed-tin ceiling and a window overlooking the Camp Creek Hills. A smaller bedroom is on the same floor.

The fifth floor is a library, filled with leather chairs and walls of books. And the room above that, the old head house, is a small reading room with picture windows on both sides.

“The other day, the top of the hill was black with bison,” Ms. Baumler said. “And I thought, there’s so many I can’t even count them all.”

Ms. Baumler, an antiques dealer, has furnished the elevator with a lifetime’s worth of collected artifacts, including period lighting fixtures from a drugstore. Her pantry is covered with glass-paned doors from an old indoor swimming arena in Helena that was destroyed in an earthquake.

Where possible, the stacked lumber walls were sanded, varnished and preserved. In some cases, the grain bouncing off the walls created a beautiful eroded effect, as when a sandstone wall is carved into unusual swirled shapes by wind and water.

As she stood in the head house, Ms. Baumler looked out at the bison scene from Montana’s past. Is she ever tempted to drive one through the fence onto her property? “No, I’m a vegetarian,” she said.

Just over an hour from Bozeman, in Alder, Ray Smail operates a business, CGB Housing, that converts grain bins into homes. CGB has created seven grain bin houses, and he lives in a 2,400-square-foot four-story home made from two stacked bins, near another Turner-owned ranch.

Mr. Smail, who is 26, sprayed the inside of the 24-foot diameter bins with an insulation, then covered it with wallboard. Every four feet, there is a 10-degree corner. A stairway winds up the knotty-pine wall inside.

The first floor, below ground, is a recreation room that includes a pool table and large-screen TV. The next floor up is the entryway, with a laundry room and bathroom.

The third floor has a kitchen with oak countertops, and a wraparound deck with built-in barbecue. The railing next to the stairs is made from peeled lodgepole pine.

The fourth floor features two bedrooms and looks out on a hot tub covered with a gazebo made from a grain bin roof.

Mr. Smail said the cost of one of the seven grain-bin homes that CGB has converted, which average 800 square feet, is around $110,000. The 24-foot bins alone cost around $15,000.

In the Bozeman area, ranches have been bought up by outsiders who have no use for the storage bins, so they sometimes give them away. “Some of the ranches are fishing lodges instead of ranches,” Mr. Smail said, “and people are turning them into small homes. One I built is for a chef at the lodge; another is for a fishing guide.”

Working with the bins can be a challenge, he said. When Mr. Smail cut holes in the steel for windows in his home, he said, the structure lost its tension. “It’s like Jell-O, so you have to build metal window frames and weld them in to get the strength back,” he said. The lack of 90-degree corners and flat walls also adds to the work. Most of the steps in his four-story home, for example, are different sizes.

And the constant climbing from one floor to the next? “You get used to it,” he said. “It’s like an exercise machine.”

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

(k) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:51 PM

:D :D

http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/910.html

:D :D

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

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:54 PM

:o :o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg4h2sl-zFU

:s Talk about synchronicity.....physical that is. ;) Very strange video, eh?

:) :)

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

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:57 PM

Q U O T E D

"First of all, who cares what this is called? Apple could call it the Apple Phone. It could call it "French Canadian Genitalia" or even "the Hebrew Profanity" and still sell it. Nobody is looking for a product named the iPhone, they're looking for Apple's iPhone that works as it was demonstrated."

-- Daniel Eran at Roughly Drafted says the naming kerfuffle is moot.

Macworld: Ten Myths of the Apple iPhone:

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/4DD0941D-9097-4FAE-A3BB-29DA5CA07199.html

:o :o :o

:)

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

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 03:01 PM

;) ;)

Apple has not agreed to license Cisco's iPhone mark, as the networking giant implied earlier this week (see "Keyboards across country shorted out by 'iPhone drool' "). Nor does it intend to, apparently.

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2007/01/so_bill_gates_d.html

Until Monday evening, hours before the iPhone's Macworld debut, the two companies were negotiating over the device's name. Cisco claims it was willing to share the iPhone trademark, which it acquired in 2000 as part of its acquisition of InfoGear. Apple, it appears, was not.

And so Cisco on Wednesday filed suit against Apple, seeking to prevent it from infringing upon and deliberately copying its iPhone mark (PDF: Cisco v. Apple). "For the last few weeks, we have been in serious discussions with Apple over how the two companies could work together and share the iPhone trademark," Cisco Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mark Chandler explained. "We genuinely believed that we were going to be able to reach an agreement and Apple's communications with us suggested they supported that goal. We negotiated in good faith with every intention to reach a reasonable agreement with Apple by which we would share the iPhone brand. So, I was surprised and disappointed when Apple decided to go ahead and announce their new product with our trademarked name without reaching an agreement. It was essentially the equivalent of 'we're too busy.' Despite being very close to an agreement, we had no substantive communication from Apple after 8 p.m. Monday, including after their launch, when we made clear we expected closure."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16431825.htm

http://bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/mn/biz/archive/cisco_v_apple_complaint.pdf

http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2007/01/update_on_ciscos_iphone_tradem.html

Judging by Apple's reaction to the suit, Cisco's not likely to see that closure for some time. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris called Cisco's suit "silly." Noting that a number of other companies already use the name iPhone for VoIP products, Kerris said. "We're the first to use iPhone for a cell phone. If Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we're confident we'll prevail." That seems a brazen response from a company with so much invested in a mark it clearly doesn't have claim to. "This was just brass balls on the part of [Apple CEO Steve Jobs], to go in there and just grab that trademark and not pay a license for it or negotiate," Endpoint Technologies Associates analyst Roger Kay told News.com. "It's the height of arrogance. He basically thinks he can get away with it." Perhaps. Or perhaps he thinks it's a worthwhile marketing strategy. Brand awareness, after all, is priceless. And after Tuesday's Macworld keynote, the Apple iPhone has more mindshare than any unavailable product in the sector.

http://news.com.com/Cisco+sues+Apple+over+use+of+iPhone+trademark+-+page+2/2100-1047_3-6149285-2.html?tag=st.next

|-) |-) See my next post for what I think.....;)

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

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 03:02 PM

;) ;) ;)

Q U O T E D

"We call them craplets."

-- A senior Microsoft executive christens the third-party software add-ons preloaded by computer makers with the diminutive of the "craplication" moniker often used to refer to Internet Explorer.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/10/tech-microsoft.html

(y) (y) That's right on.

:)

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

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 03:06 PM

:D :D

If you've been messing with computers for a while, especially in earlier years, you may well have run into the phenomenon of Death By Upgrade -- the process by which an innocent attempt to improve hardware or software goes desperately wrong, rendering the system unusable. According to a preliminary NASA investigation, that's apparently what happened to the good and faithful Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which abruptly fell silent last year after a decade of meticulously mapping the Red Planet. The leading theory is that engineers who were installing new software aimed at improving the craft's flight processors inadvertently sent some code that may have resulted in a cooling radiator for a battery being pointed at the Sun, and even a layman knows that doesn't sound right. "It may have overheated and lost the battery, which then would not allow us to have adequate power to operate the spacecraft," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, told AP Radio. Attempts to locate the probe have failed. "We're declaring it most likely dead," McCuistion said. "I doubt we will see it again." And that's a double shame -- not only an ignominious end for a spacecraft that over its life had transmitted some 240,000 pictures of Mars, but also the loss of its service in trying to confirm its most recent photographic revelation, the strongest evidence yet that liquid water recently coursed through some of the planet's gullies. "Oops" just doesn't seem to cover it.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16430432.htm

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1185

(y) (y) I LOVED the quote, "Death By Upgrade -- the process by which an innocent attempt to improve hardware or software goes desperately wrong, rendering the system unusable."

Hilarious.

(o) (o) Off to think of a topic for that last course. |-) |-) Got to do it though. Deadline is tomorrow.

Virtual hugs across the digital tundra a.k.a. Internet,

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

Whitledge

01-15-2007, 04:28 PM

What a lovely reply post! ({)(}) Your quote at the end is one of my favorite quotes - especially as dogs unconditionally love us and I want to continuously *be* the person that Wyatt thinks I am...

We'll have to talk sometime including "Southern Comfort" and the famous, infamous and others attending. My best friends attend as do I to support and embrace them. Some of my favorite authors and courageous speakers/writers attend. They have me on their email list.

Thank you so much for posting that you are "subscribing" - to see what I (and sometimes others) post on the this thread. The other "busy) thread that I started is about LDR's - Long Distance Relationships. I am really surprised and grateful to see that thread continue for as long as it has.

(f) (f) Have a delightful weekend,

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

Sweetlady, hello
We have been under a major ice storm since Friday afternoon. The roads are clearing off some but the trees are so heavly burdened with ice they are falling over and spliting to the ground. Its sad that something so beautiful can be so destructive.

Glad you like the quote, I've got a small pillow that says that. It's so very true though, they are so loyal and forever at our side. As a matter of fact, :::laughing... my youngest, Madison is standing beside me in this office chair at this very moment. She thinks she is a lap dog <wink> and that she can squeeze in anywhere. My other big beautiful baby is Beannie, the charmer of all hearts. She's laying on the floor beside me.

I'd love to talk with you sometime, and you can also fill me in on Southern Comfort, I've never been nor do I know anyone who has.

Keep posting ! It will take me forever to catch up to the last page, but that's ok, there is always something interesting to read, view and or think about.

Whitledge

01-15-2007, 05:15 PM

For this last PhD course topic? How about customizing computers for aging Baby Boomers and their parents? I'm taking my dad to get some software and hardware to help him. My PhD *IS* in Education - so I wanted to use my background, Goddess-given gifts, contacts, etc. in the service of others. I was considering helping my parents' using their computer and the Internet - as the topic for my last PhD course. Thoughts??

Bet you could make it interesting and edcuational and above all, needed as an ice breaker for those who "don't want to mention it" :$ (y) (y) (y)

it's hell, :::laughing... gettin old 'er', and the first sign is the old hands not working as well as they use too :@

;) (&) ;)
sittin' in iceville, waitin' for the sun(c)
staying warm with my girls by my side
and my kitty son, Willie

Let me live in a house
by the side of the road
and be a friend to man.
_Sam Walter Foss

({)(})({)(})'s,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (S) (l) (&) (l) (S)[/quote]

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 05:56 PM

Sweetlady, hello
We have been under a major ice storm since Friday afternoon. The roads are clearing off some but the trees are so heavly burdened with ice they are falling over and spliting to the ground. Its sad that something so beautiful can be so destructive.

Glad you like the quote, I've got a small pillow that says that. It's so very true though, they are so loyal and forever at our side. As a matter of fact, :::laughing... my youngest, Madison is standing beside me in this office chair at this very moment. She thinks she is a lap dog <wink> and that she can squeeze in anywhere. My other big beautiful baby is Beannie, the charmer of all hearts. She's laying on the floor beside me.

I'd love to talk with you sometime, and you can also fill me in on Southern Comfort, I've never been nor do I know anyone who has.

Keep posting ! It will take me forever to catch up to the last page, but that's ok, there is always something interesting to read, view and or think about.

Thank you so very much Whitledge. ({)(}) Your description of your canine angels was priceless! (l) (l) Thank you for your thoughtful comments on my postings. I felt virtually hugged by your kind words about what I post - which often tends to be all over the map, literally. :)

:| :| The ice storm sounded quite frightening. I hope that you and your furry family are all warm and snug. The temperature here dropped thirty degrees yesterday, with lots of wind. After dropping Wyatt off at the "pet-sitter", I had my hair done.

I just love the cold however, and Wyatt has several Fido Fleece dog coats to keep him warm both outside during his walks as well as in. (HIs mama prefers to keep the in-door temps chilly....;)

Let's definitely chat at your convenience about Southern Comfort as well as some of the activists and authors whom I know who attend.

Have a delightfully relaxing middle of your week and peaceful dreams tonight. (S) (S)

Warmest wishes,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:14 PM

Whitledge, once again you make me smile. :)

As the Brits often say, "Well Done!". I had lipstick on my earlobes (so to speak), I was smiling so broadly as I read your posting. Seems that I always catch myself adding the "er" to the word "old". Sounds younger that way, doesn't it? ;)

I have until this Sunday, Jan. 21 to send the professor a completed Course Learning Plan (CLP) - sort of like one of my clients' Project Plan with weekly deadlines and identifying "deliverables".

Your suggestion and feedback were greatly appreciated. (f) (f) It will be a challenge to discover a new way of describing the hardware/software "tools" as well as the services for Baby Boomers and their parents. Last time I read, there were about 80 million Baby Boomers and I'm not sure how many million of their parents there are - but it seems as if the total of both generations would be at least one-half the 300 million or so American population.

Based on even a slight fraction of that demographic, your suggestion of: "an ice breaker for those who "don't want to mention it" is very insightful and right on target, based on some research I have been doing. 8-| 8-|

I promise to keep you posted, either here or as an attachment in an email if that (i) is okay.

Brrrr.....it is definitely a "Three Dog Night" out there this evening. :o (y) Stay warm and give hugs and kisses (k) (k) on the chops to your canine girls Madison and Beannie and pets for your kitty-son Willie.

(f) (f) Warmest wishes,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:24 PM

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) These inspirational go-getters are improving our world in myriad ways, working to eradicate hunger and cancer, reinventing retirement homes, and more:

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007.html

Marlo Thomas "The children inspire me” (at St Jude's Hospital):

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007_thomas.html

Valerie Harper "Eliminating hunger, empowering women":

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007_harper.html

David Hyde Pierce "Spotlighting Alzheimer's":

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007_pierce.html

Elouise Cobell “I just want justice”:

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007_cobell.html

(l) (l) (l) Lots more on the first URL including each person's "story". (l) (l) (l)

(f) (f) (f)

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:28 PM

(y) (y) (y)

At Home in the World: The Adventures of Stan & Marcia

By Stan Klein, November 2006

Many retirees travel, but few actually sell their home and become globetrotters for good. Meet a couple who did just that, helping others as they go

My wife, Marcia, hates when people ask her where we live. You'd think this would be an easy question to answer. But in fact, it's rather complicated. We don't really live anywhere. Or rather, we live everywhere. When we retired in 1997, at age 60, we sold our house in suburban Connecticut, disposed of nearly all our belongings, and we have been traveling the globe ever since. We're living on a shoestring budget, but our experiences are priceless, as we spend much of our time doing volunteer work and meeting the people in the countries we visit.

It actually started for us at age 55. I was in real estate, mainly urban revitalization, and Marcia was a social worker, which she'd been for most of our married life. When my business flattened out, we decided to use what was left of our savings and do something we'd always dreamt about—take a trip around the world. Our daughters were grown, one living in North Carolina and one in New Mexico. We felt that we had paid our dues as "solid citizens" who had led a life of responsibility, and now it was time to discover the next phase of our lives.
Video
Clips from an interview with Stan & Marcia
FAQs
Learn how they pack, plan, stay healthy, and more

We had what we hoped would be enough money to sustain us for about a year if we traveled backpacker-style on a tight budget. With our house rented and two one-way tickets to Japan in hand, we set off for what turned out to be a two-year adventure, as our money went much further than we had expected. (We spent only about $12,000 that first year, including transportation.) The journey took us westward beyond Japan to Southeast Asia, India, Nepal, China, Africa, and, finally, Mexico, where we house-sat for four months. Along the way, we stayed in youth hostels and budget hotels, as well as with local families, traveling second class at a pace that suited us, without advance reservations or hard plans. After a nice, middle-class life tied to careers and raising children, with mortgages and car payments, this was a new sense of freedom for us.

We learned so much on this trip, about ourselves and the world we live in. All those possessions we had accumulated throughout the years suddenly seemed less valuable. Comfort became less of a priority, and the rewards of the trade-off were greater than we had expected. Prior to this trip, we had stayed at good hotels with fancy lobbies, where guests remained at arm's distance and minded their own business (and where I'd call down to the front desk if my pillow wasn't soft enough). But now, staying in simple youth hostels, we joined our fellow backpackers—many of them half our age—in endless discussions about where to go and what to see, and how to find cheap transportation and reasonable accommodations. This often led to the exchange of ideas and life dreams, and other meaningful conversations. Marcia and I were delighted to find that we were very popular, almost like parental figures for some of these young people far from home. They were surprised by the choice we'd made to do what we were doing, and we often heard, "Gee, I wish my folks would do something like that."

We met more new and different people in this two-year period and had more new experiences than at any other time in our lives. Seeing the Taj Mahal was a treat, but the connections we made with like-minded travelers made the experience that much more memorable. And perhaps even more special were our homestays with local families, arranged through People to People International and Servas International, which gave us glimpses of real life in the countries we visited. That set the stage for what was to come.

By the end of the two-year trip, Marcia and I knew what we wanted to do: retire and live a simpler life that included much more travel and greater opportunities to immerse ourselves in other cultures. We put our heads together and outlined a plan. We needed to save, so instead of moving back into our mortgage-heavy home, we continued to rent it and looked into house-sitting opportunities. Searching through the classified ads in our local paper, we found several people looking for responsible long-term house-sitters, and with our grey hair, solid résumés, and years of experience as homeowners, we found ourselves in demand. It was pretty amazing: while others paid us to live in our house, we stayed rent-free in someone else's home 10 miles up the road. We both returned to work and began saving as much as we could.

Being frugal became a great game for us. Every dime we saved brought us closer to our dream. We were surprised by how much less we could live on and how many things we used to buy that were unnecessary. We stopped spending money on meals at mediocre restaurants, for example, and kept to the bare essentials. We had assumed that living a more budget-conscious life would be one of the sacrifices we would have to make; instead, it was turning out to be one of the benefits. We were really much happier when we stopped spending. It meant we would be free that much sooner.

Three years later, we were ready for the next phase of our plan: rid ourselves of most of our possessions and sell our house. At this point, we felt not just financially but emotionally prepared to embark on our retirement journey, having had enough time to mull over the essential questions: How would we adjust to our new lifestyle? Would we feel too distant from our daughters, our grandson, and other loved ones? Would we be happy living out of a backpack? There were a lot of unknowns, but we'd already had a taste of life on the road and were excited about our decision.

It took several weeks to go through our belongings—furniture, artwork, books, clothing, appliances, etc. This was a catharsis for us. We priced everything carefully so that our giant garage sale would be successful. Initial despair evolved to a point where we couldn't stop laughing. That wonderful Eames chair that was so expensive was still beautiful, but 30 years had certainly aged it. My favorite leather jacket was not nearly as new as I'd thought it was. The onyx coffee table we'd spent six months picking out wasn't so pretty after all. What an eye-opener it was, taking a realistic look at all those "treasures" of ours.

We each had a few things we hated to part with. For me, it was my motorcycle and mechanic's tools. For Marcia, it was all the memorabilia—scraps of material from dresses she'd sewn for our daughters, the kids' childhood drawings and all the cards they'd made for us, our photo albums—much of which we wound up storing in a friend's attic.

Before we started selling things, we invited our children, nieces, and nephews to take what they wanted. Then a few special pieces went to dealers. Our weekend-long garage sale took care of most everything else. It was a wonderful process.

A few days later, we closed on the sale of our house. We left the attorney's office with a fat check in hand and two backpacks—a "his" and a "hers." Off we went in our two cars, one going to each of our daughters. We delivered the cars and said our farewells before going to the airport for the initial flight to Africa and the first leg of our new life.

We had realized that as enjoyable as our first trip was, essentially we were tourists, seeing the sights and tasting the food, but rarely getting involved with the locals, except for the few families we'd met during our homestays. So this time, we had reached out to a nongovernmental agency, American Jewish World Service (AJWS), which would place us as volunteers in different locations, and we planned to stay with a lot more host families.

Our first stop was Zimbabwe, where shortly after arrival we began a three-month AJWS assignment with a grass-roots agency called the Organization of Rural Associations for Progress (ORAP). Suddenly, there we were in Bulawayo, a part of the life and among the people. We became totally immersed in our work. Marcia started with grant writing and later branched out to teaching grant writing, working with the unit engaged in microcredit financing, and reorganizing ORAP's library. My assignment was to help people start small businesses, but I soon saw where the agency's greatest need was and began supervising and reorganizing its construction department. I helped get it back on its feet, trained a young man to take over as department head after my departure, and within three months we saw it turn a profit. Having originally been skeptical about what I could do as a volunteer, I was surprised to find how much I was able to help by using many of the skills from my working life. It was challenging and immensely rewarding—and just the start.

The lifestyle that has emerged in our retirement is satisfying to us both. We have become citizens of the world and yet have maintained close ties with our loved ones, thanks in part to the widespread availability of e-mail. A pattern that agrees with us has taken shape. We spend some time each year in the United States, visiting friends and family—going to our grandson's school to be his "show-and-tell," and tending to tax returns and medical checkups. We house-sit in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, five or six months a year, taking classes, doing volunteer work, reconnecting with friends. The rest of our time is devoted to travel and volunteering. We have had AJWS placements in South Africa, West Africa, India, and South America, and are looking forward to the next one, wherever that may be. We also have stayed with many wonderful host families both in the United States and abroad.

Right now this is a balanced and meaningful life. But who knows? For us, everything is subject to change, and we can go anywhere at a moment's notice. There are so many options, so long as we continue to keep ourselves unencumbered.

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/stanandmarcia.html

(l) (l) (l)

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:34 PM

:) :)

LOTS of stories!

http://www.aarp.org/learntech/lifelong/

The Dine', Legacy of the Land:

http://www.aarp.org/learntech/lifelong/legacy_of_the_land.html

Tasting Life in Other Places:

http://www.aarp.org/learntech/lifelong/tasting_life_in_other_places.html

So many more........ need more time. (o) I'm bookmarking for a rainy day. :)

Carpe Diem,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:36 PM

(h)(h)(h)

http://www.paulsadowski.org/BirthDay.asp

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) I LOVED this and think others will too. (f)

Wouldn't it be fun to compare results with one another? I was surprised at the breadth and depth of the information.

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:40 PM

(y) (y) (y)

Guess the logo

Are you a savvy surfer?

Think you know your Internet logos? Compare these variations of popular Web sites and guess which is the correct one. Stress-inducing timer included.

Happy guessing!

http://www.guessthelogo.com/

(l) (l) Oh, this was fun, although I could have done it without the timer. ;) ;)

(k) (k) ';s,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:42 PM

:)

Webmath

Online homework helper

Whether you're stuck on a homework problem or need help balancing your checkbook, this free site is always available. Online assistance ranges from primary school math to algebra, trigonometry & calculus, and even beyond.

Calculate this!

http://www.webmath.com/

:| :| :| :| :| Being somewhat of a math-phobe, I didn't spend much time. Perhaps later.....:o

Carpe Diem,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:44 PM

:) :)

Instructables

Make anything

You know who you are. You like to build stuff. Now there's a site for people like you to share what you know. Find step-by-step instructions for making anything and everything. Plus, you can share what you can make with others.

Build it now!

http://www.instructables.com/

(h) 8-|

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:47 PM

:) :)

Best places

Where should you live?

Go west, young pilgrim. Or maybe east. Or south. If you're planning a move or just curious about the quality of life in various cities in the U.S., this site offers valuable information about schools, homes, climate, cost of living, etc.

The grass is greener:

http://www.bestplaces.net/

(y) (y)

(k) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:49 PM

:) :) :)

Be your own hero

Personalized action figures

For the person who has everything, now you can get a miniature plastic version of yourself. These folks will make an action figure of you—for you. See Mario the barber take on frightful dandruff! Thrill to Emily the bookkeeper adding up all her debit columns on a ten-key calculator!

Go play with yourself! :| :o ;) :)

http://www.andgor.com/Personalized_Figures/personalized_figures.html

:) :) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:50 PM

:) :)

Whodunnit?

The Queen's Hope Diamond has been stolen and it's up to you to find it. Search for clues in multiple levels, find the offending culprit, and recover the stolen gem. Find items in each level to unlock subsequent levels. Get lost in beautiful illustrations that hold thousands of clues cleverly hidden within.

Learn more and download today!

http://www.alivegames.com/prime_suspects/

Adieu,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:53 PM

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

Audium—MAC OSX

Alternate IM

It never hurts to have a little choice in life. Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more. It's free, you can pick your own IM client—choices you can live with.

Learn more and download today!

http://www.adiumx.com/

(y) (y) BTW - Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.

"Life is short; Have fun, will ya?" - Sweetlady, January 17, 2007

;) ;) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:56 PM

:| :| :| :|

Usually the one emotion video galleries evoke is laughter. But in this unusual collection we get treated to people enjoying a meal, snack, or gnosh while sniveling, sobbing, or crying.

Why? Watch, read it, and weep.

Pass the salt...and tissues:

http://www.cryingwhileeating.com/

:o :o No wonder this particular URL was under the "Weird Web" category.......;)

Lovely evening, all.

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 07:00 PM

:s .....:| .........;)

Q U O T E D

"The iPhone has given the nerd community its hardest collective wood since Princess Leia wore a bronze bikini. But you haven't engorged me Apple. I am flaccid with rage."

-- Stephen Colbert

http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/stephen_colbert_is_flaccid_with_rage_about_apples_ iphone/

|-) |-) Does anyone besides me find this Colbert guy to be a complete bore? Even while playing a "correspondent" on the Jon Stewart Show on Comedy Central, I never liked him. Perhaps because Jon Stewart can be so hilariously funny that my tummy hurts. (y) (y) (y)

At the end of the day? I guess it's the quote that counts, not the author of the quote. Or not. ;)

Carpe Diem,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 07:08 PM

:|

"We want to be ready when video-on-demand happens. That's why the company is Netflix, not DVD-by-mail."

-- Netflix CEO Reed Hastings

How I Did It: Reed Hastings, Netflix:

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20051201/qa-hastings.html

It's taken nine years, but Netflix is finally offering a service worthy of its name. This morning, the company that turned online DVD rentals into big business announced a new service to stream movies and television shows directly to users' PCs over the Net. Christened "Watch Now," the service, which is free to Netflix subscribers, offers real-time viewing of a limited catalog of about 1000 past-their-prime movies and television shows. A recent version of Windows, a copy of Internet Explorer, and one megabit per second of bandwidth are the service's only requirements, although a taste for B movies would likely be helpful. "While mainstream consumer adoption of online movie watching will take a number of years due to content and technology hurdles, the time is right for Netflix to take the first step," said Hastings in a statement that was almost apologetic. "Over the coming years we'll expand our selection of films, and we'll work to get to every Internet-connected screen, from cell phones to PCs to plasma screens. The PC screen is the best Internet-connected screen today, so we are starting there."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16470058.htm

http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2007/01/breaking_netfli.html#more

Watch Now, while a step in the right direction, isn't really the most compelling of video-on-demand services -- certainly it's a far cry from set-top box system Netflix was rumored to be cooking up a few years back (see "TiVo, Netflix spotted making out in back row"). Can it really compete with in a market that will soon host Amazon, Apple, MovieLink, and CinemaNow, not to mention cable outfits like Comcast? Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter doesn't think so. "We think that this new service will become irrelevant as more robust services are offered by competitors Apple, Amazon, and Google over the next few years," he wrote in a note to clients. "Should any of these companies escalate the download battle, we think that Netflix's resources will limit its ability to compete in the future."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gmsv/9601041.htm

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/04/only_hollywood_.html

(y) (y) (y) I am definitely a strong supporter of netflix and hope they can dominate the market over Blockbuster. The netflix firm folks deserve it and are not a soulless conglomerate like Blockbuster, IMHO. I'll continue to be a member since 2003 - although I must admit - as a grrl-propeller-head? I'd like to see how their version of VOD via-Internet works and compare it with dozens of other methods from my client project work.

I still enjoy the mailed DVD experience, if only as an analog-delivery (also known as the USPS) alternative as well as getting off my butt/away from the computer for paid work and PhD work - to get some fresh air.........and then experience a great, good or fair film.

Speaking of which, I scared the heck out of Wyatt last night when I actually hooted when Helen Mirren won Best Actress for "The Queen".......and then again when a once unknown comic actor won Best Actor during the Golden Globes.

I am also a firm proponent of hand-written thank you notes sent by snail-mail. It is amazing how few folks do that anymore. Womyn and the womyn/MtFs/FtMs/all others who love them do this and/or agree, I think.

(i) Hey - one person's enjoyable stroll to the mailbox is another's download. :| :o ;) :)

(k) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 07:30 PM

:o :o

http://www.enpieza.com/

:) :)

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 07:36 PM

:o :o :o :o :o :o

Bette adjusts to her new job in academia for a formidable new boss (Cybill Shepherd); Jenny's book receives a scathing review; Tina must fire Helena from the studio, leaving her nowhere to go but accept a roommate offer from Alice.

Directed By: Marleen Gorris
Written By: Alexandra Kondracke

http://www.sho.com/site/lword/previous_episodes.do?episodeid=127452

:o :o ....."Oh Papi! Gimme circles Papi!!"

Whoa!! Alice and then within several minutes....Helena? Talk about a "playa"........

What can I say? The L Word and Deadwood are my faves.(y) (y)

(l) CSI (Vegas) and The Medium are "network episodic" faves.

Pleasant dreams,

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

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 08:06 PM

(l) (l)

http://7deadlysinners.typepad.com/photos/vintage_valentines/veal.jpg

MY FAVORITE!! http://static.flickr.com/25/99503464_4ff8d43502_o.jpg

Sweet: http://cupples.slu.edu/images/dsc03327.jpg

Me and my mailbox: http://i4.ebayimg.com/05/s/06/cf/44/d8_2.JPG

Beautiful: http://www.firstpr.com.au/show-and-tell/valentines-cards/v1f-2048x3225.jpg

(l) (l) : http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/exhibits/valentine/3-d/2.jpg

Victorian Lesbian Love:

http://images.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_SM/0038-0501-1214-4944_SM.jpg

Pretty: http://www.antiquetalk.com/valentine.jpg

Another pretty one: http://www3.baylor.edu/~Michelle_Toon/images/Antiquevals/val5.gif

(l) (l) (l) Enjoy!! I'm thinking about Valentine's Day and almost always, it is my pet who gets the treats.

Early wishes...for gorgeous blue and purple flowers as well as the BEST dark chocolate. Oh? And your favorite scent in a candles-all-over lit bath.

Carpe Diem,

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

sweetlady

01-18-2007, 10:53 AM

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

http://www.sundancechannel.com/festival/

:D Watch short films and festival highlights free: www.sundance.org

:) :) Watch features and shorts on the Sundance Channel!

Schedule: www.sundance.org/watch

(h) (h) (h)

Have a terrific Thursday! (f) (f)

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:33 PM

:) :) :)

MARINE RETIREMENT BONUS

If this doesn't make you laugh, you are truly humor impaired!

The Marine Corps found they had too many officers and senior
enlisted men. It was decided to offer an early retirement bonus. They
promised any officer or senior enlisted man who volunteered for retirement a
bonus of $1,000 for every inch measured in a straight line between
any two points in his body. Those applying got to choose what those
two points would be.

The first officer who accepted asked that he be measured from the
top of his head to the tip of his toes. He was measured at six feet and
walked out with a bonus of $72,000.

The second officer who accepted was a little smarter and asked to be
measured from the tip of his outstretched hands to his toes. He
walked out with $96,000.

The third one was a non-commissioned officer, a grizzly old Sergeant
Major who, when asked where he would like to be measured replied,
"From the tip of my weenie to my testicles."

It was suggested by the pension man that he might want to
reconsider, explaining about the nice big checks the previous two officers had
received.

But the old Marine insisted and they decided to go along with him
providing the measurement was taken by a medical officer. The
medical officer arrived and instructed the Sergeant Major to "drop
'em," which he did.. The medical officer placed the tape measure on
the tip of his weenie and began to work back. "Dear Lord!" he
suddenly exclaimed, "Where are your testicles?" The old Sergeant
Major calmly replied, " Vietnam."

:o :o :o :) :) :) :D :D :D

;) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:38 PM

:o

With over half the world's 741 million cell phones equipped with some kind of camera, a 911 network through which we can transmit digital images seems a prudent idea. Witness a crime; snap a photo; send it to 911. Simple. New York City is moving to make just such a thing possible. Delivering his State of the City address at the New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn this week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans to allow 911 call centers to receive digital photos and videos from callers. "This year, we'll begin a revolutionary innovation in crime-fighting: Equipping 911 call centers to receive digital images and videos New Yorkers send from cell phones and computers, something no other city in the world is doing," Bloomberg said. "If you see a crime in progress or a dangerous building condition you'll be able to transmit images to 911, or online to NYC.GOV. And we'll start extending the same technology to 311 to allow New Yorkers to step forward and document non-emergency quality of life concerns, holding city agencies accountable for correcting them quickly and efficiently." A great idea and one whose time has clearly come. "This is absolutely brand new for law enforcement, and it's absolutely new for a call center like 311, but by no means is it new technology," John Feinblatt, the mayor's criminal justice coordinator, told the New York Times. "So what we're going to do is take applications that already exist in the industry and adapt them to 911 and 311. The truth of the matter is, this is the way the world is now working, so it's just time to bring 911 and 311 into cyberspace."

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196901896

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18cameras.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

(y) (y) (y) However....if those 911 operators actually *do* answer......:|

(i) (i) Anyone know where the 911 system started? And where, even today - if you need help right away, if you call 911 - your life just might well be saved by rapid response?

(f) Seattle (f)

|-) Okay, factoid du jour.

Have a lovely Friday evening and weekend!

(k) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:40 PM

:| :|

http://www.devilducky.com/media/56551/

;)

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:42 PM

:o :o

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/iphone-ringtone-sounds-like-holy-angels-tinkling-download-it-here-229700.php

8-| Okay.......:)

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:44 PM

:o :o :o :o

http://www.bornrich.org/entry/microsoft-unveils-etoilet-for-geeks/

8-) 8-) Seems like some folks make too much dineros, eh? Either that of have way, WAY too much time on their hands. ;)

Carpe Diem,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:49 PM

8o| 8o| (as I intensely dislike Bill Gates and Microsoft.....)

The "Wow" starts now. That's the slogan with which Microsoft has chosen to brand its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system. But a more appropriate exclamation might be "wha?" Or perhaps "eh." At least according to Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg, who, after spending some time with the OS, pronounced it "a worthy, but largely unexciting, product." Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but apparently it's all the OS merited. "Overall, [Vista] works pretty much the same way as Windows XP," Mossberg writes. "Nearly all of the major, visible new features in Vista are already available in Apple's operating system, called Mac OS X, which came out in 2001 and received its last major upgrade in 2005. ... There are some big downsides to this new version of Windows. To get the full benefits of Vista, especially the new look and user interface, which is called Aero, you will need a hefty new computer, or a hefty one that you purchased fairly recently. The vast majority of existing Windows PCs won't be able to use all of Vista's features without major hardware upgrades. They will be able to run only a stripped-down version, and even then may run very slowly. ... In fact, in my tests, some elements of Vista could be maddeningly slow even on new, well-configured computers." There's more, but you get the idea: not much to see here, folks. Which is surprising given the time and effort Microsoft's put into Vista. Perhaps the state of invention at Microsoft really is as poor as some say ... (see "Oh yeah? Who introduced color to the unrecoverable error screen, huh?")

"Wow" as a brand name slogan??? http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

Wall Street Journal's Vista: Worthy, Largely Unexciting:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116908385298979668-0KM342sGUp9UKiEikdnpxRiVaZw_20080118.html

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

:D Has anyone watched the Apple Computer TV ad where the guy representing the PC is in a hospital gown? Hilarious!

:) :) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:52 PM

:o

http://www.indianarc.com/

;) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:53 PM

;)

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/posts.html?pg=5

:| :|

:) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:56 PM

8-) 8-)

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/01/modern_mechanix_1.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

(y) (y) Definitely a site for those with mechanical gifts and abilities. (Unlike me.)

(k) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:58 PM

:) :)

http://www.yankodesign.com/product_info.php?products_id=1548

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

:) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:59 PM

;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4VieMjZYfI

:D

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:01 PM

;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLo1USJIkgY

|-) |-) Don't care for Conan (I am more of a Jay Leno fan, especially on Monday nights when it is "Headline" Night) - but I respect that Conan *is* hilarious for many folks. I thought some might be interested. :) Enjoy!

(f) (f) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:03 PM

:s

Enough of the iHype already

IVOR TOSSELL

Globe and Mail Update

Has the iPhone backlash arrived yet? If not, let's get started.

Here's a product that is six months away from actually being on the market. It promises to be a nice cellphone-slash-e-mail checker. It doesn't really do anything revolutionary. It just promises to be easy to use, to raise the bar for general glossiness, and to be very expensive. That's it.

Now consider what happened last week. In Las Vegas, every major technology company and 150,000 techies had gathered to release products and drum up publicity at the biggest North American event on their calendar, the Consumer Electronics Show. Every major company, that is, except one: Apple, which, as usual, boycotted the proceedings and held its own refusenik convention up the coast in San Francisco.

There, Apple CEO Steve Jobs gets up on stage, waves a prototype iPhone in the air, and every self-respecting publication in the world drops everything and slaps it on the front page. In terms of publicity, the vastly larger gathering in Las Vegas was blown off the map. Reporters were leaving Vegas and flying to San Francisco. Jobs had upstaged the whole tech world.

Apple gets a lot of credit for its marketing genius, from its clever co-opting of the creative class (apparently, you're not allowed to make music unless it's on a Mac) to that cultish music player (apparently, you're not allowed to listen to music unless it's on an iPod).

Sure enough, like any cult, Apple has its share of adoring websites, from the encyclopedic product history inscribed at Apple-History.com and apple2history.org, to the complete coverage of Wired News' Cult of Mac blog (blog.wired.com/cultofmac/).

What Apple doesn't get nearly enough credit for, though, is being a master of viral marketing. When you think of "viral video," the entertaining pieces of Web video that you pass around to your friends, the company seldom springs to mind. But looked at from another angle, you could define a "viral" as any piece of promotion that stays in circulation without requiring infusions of advertising money. Apple has worked wonders here.

How? For one thing, the company is compulsively secret about its forthcoming products.

Everybody loves a secret, so naturally, there's an entire industry of Apple rumour sites that are solely devoted to stoking talk about future products. They provide an endless supply of covert reports from unnamed sources; the fact that Apple threatens to fire and prosecute employees who leak company secrets only adds to the intrigue.

The sites are rabidly followed by merchants, analysts, hacks and fan boys alike. As I write, Apple Insider) is speculating on the possibility of a Super Bowl ad that might announce a reconciliation between Apple and Apple Corps (which owns the Beatles catalogue), which have been feuding over their mutual trademark.

Meanwhile, MacRumors.com features a handy buyer's guide, which predicts whether the Apple product you're thinking of spending too much money on will be replaced next week.

The rumour sites and the clandestine company are adversaries in theory, but they're really part of the same promotional ecosystem. Everybody involved has drunk deeply of the fruit-flavoured Kool-Aid. All Apple has to do is throw around the occasional lawsuit (a third major site, ThinkSecret.com, was a recent target), and, I suspect, enough false leads to throw them off, and they provide an endless supply of buzz for little investment.

Moreover, the Apple publicity machine has yielded accidental opportunities for creative types to pitch in. Take the iPhone. The product was rumoured for years. The catch was, nobody had seen it or even knew what shape it was.

As a result, veritable procession of fake iPhone (and, formerly, video iPod) photos surfaced online, each claiming to represent the elusive gadget's actual form. None were close -- they were all ill-informed Photoshop fabrications -- but each one made the rounds and kept people chattering.

And then there are the Apple ads. In the past few years, Apple has released two distinctive series of ads that have wormed their way into pop culture: First, the "Switcher" ads that featured attractive people delivering monologues about why they ditched their PCs for Macs.

(One of these featured a winsome girl named Ellen Feiss, whose performance gave such an impression of being influenced by banned substances that she spawned an Internet following of her own. See ellenfeiss.net, and try searching for her on YouTube while you're at it.)

Then came the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" spots, which feature cult-hero comedian John Hodgman as a befuddled anthropomorphic PC, opposite actor Justin Long as a smarmy, too-hip Mac that most people seem to want to punch.

Whatever their effectiveness as advertising, all three lend themselves to imitation by being formulaic, stylized and simple: It's pretty easy to film two people against a white backdrop, play the Apple music and have the results be instantly recognizable.

So people hop on the bandwagon. A YouTube search for "Apple Parody" yields hundreds of results, ranging from a guy encouraging Americans to switch to Canada, to a funny account of all the fun a PC gamer had by switching to Macs, which are notoriously lousy game machines. (He tries to enumerate good Mac games: "Zork, Breakout. . . Super Breakout. . . Photoshop. . .") They're not all positive, to be sure. But a homage to a brand's style is ahomage to the brand itself, and every last drop of it is advertising that Apple didn't pay for. I write this, realizing that I'm part of the problem, not part of the solution.

So let's start the iPhone backlash, before I start itching to buy one.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070119.gtweb19/BNStory/Technology/home

(y) (y) ;)

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:06 PM

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

Isaiah Washington: ‘Sorry For Being A Dirty Great Gay Hater’

January 19th, 2007 at 13:00 by Stuart Heritage

Isaiah Washington Faggot sorry gay TR Knight Grey's Anatomy In England a faggot is a delicious meaty treat made from pig's heart and bacon all mashed up in a ball, but everywhere else a faggot is something that makes Isaiah Washington from Grey's Anatomy look like a bit of a doltish nincompoop.

Isaiah Washington, you'll remember, got in a fight on the Grey's Anatomy set in October after calling secretly gay TR Knight a "faggot." At first Isaiah Washington denied that he'd used that particular gay slur, only for everyone who's ever worked on Grey's Anatomy to subsequently snitch on him bigstyle. Now, sensing that his career is on the line, Isaiah Washington has issued a full, frank and sincere apology to everyone he offended with the "faggot" jibe. For those of you who can't be bothered to read the rest of this article, think back to what happened with Mel Gibson in the summer and just replace all the "Fucking Jews" and "Sugartits" bits with the word "faggot," since that's more or less all Isaiah Washington actually did.

In the beginning Mel Gibson created making yourself look like a racist wanker in front of the entire world, before eventually learning that the only way to get out of problems like this was to apologise relentlessly to leaders of the offended community. And now, whenever anyone else upsets an entire swathe of society, they tread in Mel's footprints. Michael Richards - following his gigantically offensive racist meltdown onstage - apologised to Al Sharpton. Al wasn't having any of it, but at least Richards tried. We also expect that Jade Goody will be flying to India in the next few weeks to meet Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and be all like "Sorry for being racial Mr Poppadom Whatsyerface."

And then there's Isaiah Washington from Grey's Anatomy, who is slightly different. Isaiah Washington didn't offend a racial group, but a social one - the gays. During the legendary Grey's Anatomy actor-fight of 2006, Isaiah Washington reportedly referred to co-star TR Knight as a "faggot" which, in turn, made TR Knight look at himself, think "Wait a minute, I AM gay!" and then announce his public homosexuality to a partly-suspecting world. Following the bust-up Isaiah Washington apologised for the fight but not the gay slur.

In fact Isaiah Washington then went on to deny calling anyone a "faggot" at all - something which prompted another Grey's Anatomy star, Katherine Heigl, to publicly round on Isaiah for being a liar. When this was followed by an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show by TR Knight who also confirmed that the slur was directed at him, Isaiah Washington had to think fast. And where did he go first? The Mel Gibson Handbook For Monumentally Insensitive Celebrities, of course. The LA Times printed Isaiah Washington's apology:

"I can neither defend nor explain my behaviour. I can also no longer deny to myself that there are issues I obviously need to examine within my own soul, and I've asked for help. With one word, I've hurt everyone who has struggled for the respect so many of us take for granted. I welcome the chance to meet with leaders of the gay and lesbian community to apologise in person. T.R.'s courage throughout this entire episode speaks to his tremendous character. I hold his talent, and T.R. as a person, in high esteem. I know a mere apology will not end this, and I intend to let my future actions prove my sincerity."

While we can't be entirely certain that Isaiah Washington didn't mean Mr Humpries from Are You Being Served and Smithers from The Simpsons when he mentioned "leaders of the gay and lesbian community" it seems like leaders of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation are taking Washington on his word and have agreed a meeting with the actor which - following GLAAD tradition - will consist of a mumbled apology from Isaiah Washington, a quick "oh, how could I ever stay mad at you, you great noodlebrain" and a big group hug.

http://www.hecklerspray.com/isaiah-washington-sorry-for-being-a-dirty-great-homophobe/20066611.php/

+o( Washington clearly has an acute case of "cranial rectitus"! (his head is way, way up his *ss!.......)

GRRR.

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:07 PM

:) :) :)

January 14, 2007

Day Out

In Dulwich Hill, Sydney, Finding the World in a Few Blocks

By JENNIFER GAMPELL

AT 5 a.m., as clubbers in trendy Sydney neighborhoods like Darlinghurst and Newtown head home, early-risers in Dulwich Hill are buying fresh loaves of Italian rustico and pugliesi sourdough at Luigi's Bakery. “Bread is our culture,” says the owner, Luigi Carrieri, of his predominantly Greek, Italian and Portuguese customers. “They love bread here. It's my kind of area.” By 9 a.m., half his homemade loaves, rings, rolls and other specialties are gone.

Like London, Sydney comprises a loose agglomeration of separate neighborhoods. Many still retain a strong ethnic flavor, though their demographics shift with immigration patterns and with the flight of prior immigrants to wealthier suburbs. Mr. Carrieri and his family arrived in Australia in 1970 as part of the huge influx of southern Europeans who immigrated from the late '50s through the '70s. Middle Easterners and Asians started coming in the late '70s; by the '90s Asians were 70 percent of new immigrants.

Elsewhere in Sydney, gentrification has transformed working-class neighborhoods in the city's Inner West and Inner East areas into highly desirable and expensive yuppie enclaves. Ten years ago, funky Newtown was filled with students and young hipsters who frequented its two long blocks of cheap cafes, bookstores and second-hand clothiers. Today's Newton is virtually wall-to-wall restaurants and chichi boutiques.

Dulwich Hill, part of the so-called Outer Inner West, is just 10 minutes southwest of Newtown, yet it retains a charming Old World simplicity and sense of community long since gone from nearby Sydney neighborhoods.

Among its 12,000 or so residents are Greeks, Italians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Portuguese, Vietnamese and their Australian-born offspring. “All the cultures get on; no single group dominates,” says Con Kazanzitidis, the Greek-born owner of the Last Drop Café. Artists, writers and academics are moving in, he says, but not the trendy types. “Newtown draws tourists,” he says, “Dulwich Hill is for locals.”

A Thai painter, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, moved to Sydney in 1996 after marrying an English-born art historian, and the couple bought their Dulwich Hill home in 2000. “In some parts of Sydney I do feel ‘other,' ” she acknowledges. “But here I feel comfortable, not like I'm in a minority.”

Her next-door neighbor on one side is a Greek family, on the other a New Zealand-Chinese couple. Across the street are Italians and Turks and further down a Cambodian family of Chinese origin runs a convenience store that also sells Greek newspapers. “You walk around the neighborhood and know there'll be something here for you,” she says. “People in Dulwich Hill embrace each other. Everyone feels a part of the community.”

Commerce in Dulwich Hill clusters around the intersection of Marrickville and New Canterbury Roads, a former tram line terminus. While shops on pedestrian-friendly Marrickville Road thrive, four-lane New Canterbury is a busy thoroughfare with no street parking. It would be impossible to describe all the multicultural merchants along these few blocks, but here's a sampling.

Regulars at Luigi's Bakery (396 New Canterbury Road; 61-2-9560-5008) like Jose Oliveira seem oblivious to the cars whizzing by. At 7 a.m. Mr. Oliveira, a Portuguese native, stands on the sidewalk holding his bread purchases and chatting with a fellow customer. A resident of nearby Marrickville for 35 years, Mr. Oliveira comes to the store for bread despite the many new Chinese and Vietnamese bakeries in his own once-Greek neighborhood. Chinese bakers use too much yeast, he says, and their products don't taste right the following day. “Luigi's bread is good,” he says.

Before the burly Mr. Carrieri, a fourth-generation baker, heads off to bed at 8:30 a.m., he talks about sourdough acidity and other nuances of the craft he learned from his father while a teenager in Brindisi. Once in Australia, Mr. Carrieri senior abandoned traditional baking techniques for the faster modern ones, but his son preferred the labor-intensive old methods and in 1987 went out on his own, buying his small shop from its Greek owner in 1997. The original Dulwich Hill Hot Bread Shop sign still hangs out over the street.

A few doors down at the popular M.N.A. Meats (380 New Canterbury Road; 61-2-9569-1330), Michael Vizakos, the butcher, stands behind the counter deftly whacking individual chops off a side of lamb. “I'm too busy to talk,” mutters Mr. Vizakos, a paunchy Cypriot with a thick mustache and a fisherman's cap, and asks me to come back after the Easter rush. When I say I won't be around that long, the butcher, the 53-year-old “M” portion of the shop's acronymic name, puts down his cleaver and wipes his hands on a striped butcher's apron. (“N” is his son, Nicholas; “A” his older brother, Anastasis.)

Michael Vizakos produces a black-and-white photo taken in Cyprus showing two scrawny kids dressed in school uniforms standing ramrod straight on either side of a seated child holding a baby. “I'm the one on the left and that's Anastasis on the right,” he points proudly. The Greeks — and Cypriots — who settled in Dulwich Hill in the late 1950s and '60s own a lot of local property and remain the neighborhood's predominant foreign-born population group. They patronize the seven-year-old M.N.A. as much for its friendly ambiance as for the traditional lamb “pluck” (innards). Other popular Cypriot specialties include homemade patourma (dry sausage made with beef, garlic and paprika) and loucanica (a pork sausage marinated two weeks in wine).

In 1961 when the 13-year-old Tony Sentas sailed into Pyrmont port from the Greek island of Limnos, his first impression of Australia was the enormous bar of chocolate held aloft by his father (who'd arrived two years earlier). “This must be a very good country,” thought the awestruck youngster. He and his brother started selling fruits and vegetables 36 years ago in Dulwich Hill and their open-fronted Sentas Brothers store (485 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9569-1885) is the oldest in the area. Excellent produce and low prices certainly contribute to its continued success, but it's Tony's welcoming and ebullient personality that keeps customers coming from as far away as Coogee (an eastern beach suburb).

Contrary to appearances, the Last Drop Café's hip white logo on the black outdoor awning and the minimalist interior décor aren't harbingers of oncoming Dulwich Hill gentrification, but instead the latest incarnation of a 30-year family business (538 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9572-9800). When the 41-year-old Con Kazantzidis emigrated from Greece 30 years ago, his family bought the building for a hardware store. Seven years ago Con gave up his high school teaching career to transform it into the neighborhood's first cool cafe. His diminutive mother makes the Greek items like spanakopita and keftedes that are listed on a small blackboard.

The unpretentious interior of Fernandes Patisserie (516 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9568-2114) belies the delectability of its Portuguese pastel de nata (custard tarts) that come in coconut cream, ricotta, almond and lemon flavors. The owner, Carlos Fernandes, part owner of a bakery in nearby Petersham (once a largely Portuguese community), moved to the neighborhood three years ago to cater to the local Portuguese residents. Many now gather at the small square tables to sip the excellent coffee and eat the flaky tarts, Madeira cakes and other pastries.

Some types of the salami, olives, biscuits and cheeses at Gino & Mary's deli (560 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9560-7456) are also available at Sydney supermarkets, says Mary Grasso, one of the owners. And in many Sydney suburbs, supermarkets have obliterated small family-run businesses. But no supermarket can compete with the chunks of prosciutto suspended on hooks above the front window or the delicious homemade cracked olives. Nor can they offer personalized service by people who were working in the area long before Gino Grasso, who is Sicilian born, and his Australian wife took over six years ago from the previous Sicilian owner.

From floor to ceiling, every inch of the tiny Izmir Market (471-473 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9568-3243) is crammed with canned goods, olives, pickles, coffee, jams, rosewater bottles, pulses, dried fruit, flatbread and yogurt. In one corner of the store, owned by Sevim and Osman Kiraci, is a large selection of videos recently taped from Turkish TV.

Abla Pastry (425 New Canterbury Road; 61-2-9560-5088), on a busy corner, is the largest supplier of Lebanese baked goods in Sydney. Specialties include beloure (noodle pastry pressed with pistachio and rosewater), bruma (similar but rolled and deep fried), 10 kinds of baklava and assorted date, coconut and semolina squares.

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

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:11 PM

:D :D Oh yes, babe!

December 17, 2006

DINING/SOMERVILLE; Behind That Door, The Freshest Sushi

By KARLA COOK

IF there is a silver lining in every cloud, finding one in my computer crash was a challenge. But there it was, in a conversation with the genius who saved my data. ''Where do you like to eat?'' I asked him. He named a pizza place, then mentioned an Italian restaurant whose name he couldn't remember. But for sushi, he was sure: Shumi.

And that is how I came to walk down the long, carpeted hall lined with dated photographs hung too high on the walls, turn left toward the fake-rock fountain, brush past the card table covered with bargain-priced soy sauce dishes and open the grungy door to the freshest and best-tasting sushi around.

Shumi feels like a secret, but it's not. Shortly after I first heard about it, in fact, Michael Coury, the head chef at Circa in High Bridge, mentioned it as a favorite sushi place. Shumi's walls display reviews, some dating to the early years of its two decades in business. A floor-to-ceiling set of deep glass shelves holds the sake bottles of regulars. Traffic, though not raucous, was steady. And on my visits, there was an easy banter between customer and chef that comes from familiarity. One muscular customer in a black T-shirt was laughing with the chef about his early visits years ago, when he was ''still in shape'' and wouldn't eat the rice. ''Now I eat everything,'' he said.

At Shumi, that's easy to do. There were the impossibly thin slices of fluke laid in a shimmering circle, the first course in omakase, chef's choice. This dish -- delicately flavored, sweet and so meltingly tender that it seemed to disappear in my mouth, leaving only freshness and a trace of lemon from the garnish -- set the tone for a meal of treasures. It included a trio of mackerel -- Spanish, horse and regular, each better than the last, especially the horse mackerel with its tiny green cupola of chopped ginger and scallion. Then, too, there was the white tuna (available spicy or not), and toro (fatty tuna) and a Japanese fish that was its equal, called aburabo, with part of the word translating, appropriately, to buttery.

The fish was unfailingly excellent. Shiso leaf was fresh, picked from the restaurant's backyard garden before the frost. The rice was slightly flavored and slightly warm. A conversation with the chefs -- Ike Aikasa, a co-owner and a master sushi chef, and Jack Pak, his second at the sushi bar, lord of the kitchen and another co-owner -- was friendly and educational.

The 80-seat restaurant is a rough rectangle, with dividers and walls to create separate dining areas. Computer-printed signs are misspelled, kitsch abounds -- there's a Marilyn Monroll on the menu, with tempura shrimp and asparagus -- and the teapots and cups are awkwardly designed.

But never mind all that; the proof is on the plate.

Though calling them Japanese would be a stretch, all the special appetizers ordered lived up to the title. The spicy shrimp soup would take the chill off an early winter day, with its juxtaposition of hot and sour against sweet shrimp, cooked just to peak tenderness. The fried oyster salad encouraged selfishness, with the crisp, light batter enclosing hot and juicy oysters laid in a taro basket, as did the soft-shell crab salad, with its bed of mixed lettuces dressed with a wasabi vinaigrette. But the best of the lot was the marinated and grilled yellowtail jaw, a roughly rectangular piece of fragrant, succulent and tender fish that almost sidetracked my plan to order the omakase, which is mainly sushi.

Service, under the direction of Amy Aikasa, Mr. Aikasa's wife and the third co-owner, is several notches above that in most restaurants. The server and the chef remembered my favorites on my second and third visits, stopping only to verify before serving them.

For those who don't like fish, there are chicken, tofu and pork dishes; if I could bring myself to eat something other than fish at Shumi, I would try them.

As for sweets, stick with either the tasty red bean cake called yokan or one of the three Asian-style ice creams: green tea, ginger and red bean. Myself, I'll just have a little more sushi.

Shumi Japanese Restaurant
30 South Doughty Avenue
Somerville
(908) 526-8596

www.shumirestaurant.com

(y) (y) (y) Whose ready to go? Sushi is my "go to" food when I need to boost those brain cells - especially for left brain work. The extremely gentle "high" afterwards is like that of after sex and/or after working out. :o :o :) :) Hmmm, from what I remember, that is. ;)

Seriously.

;) ;) 's,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:15 PM

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

January 18, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

The Lost Voice of Protest

By BOB HERBERT

On the evening of the fourth of April, 1967, one year to the day (almost to the hour) before his assassination, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walked into Riverside Church in Manhattan and delivered a speech that was among his least well known, yet most controversial.

“I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight,” he said, “because my conscience leaves me no other choice.”

The speech was an eloquent, full-throated denunciation of the war in Vietnam, one of the earliest public critiques by such a high-profile American. Silence in the face of the horrors of that war, said Dr. King, amounted to a “betrayal.”

The speech unleashed a hurricane of criticism. Even the N.A.A.C.P. complained about Dr. King stepping out of his perceived area of expertise, civil rights, to raise his voice against the evil of the war. The Times headlined an editorial, "Dr. King’s Error."

The war would go on for another eight years, ultimately taking the lives of 58,000 Americans and a million to two million Vietnamese. Dr. King himself would be silenced, at the age of 39, by a bullet in Memphis.

The widespread celebration of Dr. King’s birthday on Monday brought that Vietnam speech to mind. It’s both gratifying and important that we honor this great man with a national holiday. But it’s disturbing that we pay so much more attention to the celebrations than we do to the absolutely crucial lessons that he spent much of his life trying to teach us.

Whether it’s the war in Iraq, or the plight of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, or the violence and self-destructive behavior that plagues so many black Americans, our attitude toward the wisdom of Dr. King has been that of the drug addict or alcoholic to the notion that there might be a better way. We give lip service to it, and then we ignore it.

In the Vietnam speech, Dr. King said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” He may as well have been speaking into the void. The war in Iraq, a reprise of Vietnam, will cost us well over a trillion dollars before we’re done, and probably more than two trillion. More than 3,000 American G.I.’s have been killed and the death toll for Iraqis is tallied by the scores of thousands.

No one knows what to do, although the politicians and the pundits are all over television, day and night, background singers to the carnage.

Here at home the city of New Orleans is on life support, struggling to survive the combined effects of a catastrophic flood, the unconscionable neglect of the federal government, and the monumental ineptitude of its own local officials. As ordinary residents of New Orleans continue to suffer, the rest of the nation has casually turned away. The debacle is no longer being televised. So it must be over.

Dr. King held the unfashionable view that we had an obligation to help those who are in trouble, and to speak out against unfair treatment and social injustice. “Our lives begin to end,” he said, “the day we become silent about things that matter.”

New Orleans matters. And the long dark night of the war in Iraq must surely matter. But not enough voices of protest are being raised in either case. The anger quotient is much too low. You can’t stop America’s involvement in a senseless war or revive a dying American city if your greatest passion is kicking back with pizza and beer and tuning in to “American Idol.”

The quality of life for black Americans more than 38 years after the death of Dr. King is a mixed bag. Blacks are far better off economically and educationally than ever before. Barack Obama is a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, and the last two secretaries of state have been black.

But the ominous shadow of racial prejudice is still with us. Even President Bush acknowledged that conditions in New Orleans pre-Katrina were proof of that. The nation’s prisons are filled to the bursting point with black men who have failed, or been failed, and have no viable future. And too many black Americans are willing and even eager to see themselves in the culturally depraved lineup of gangsters, pimps and whores.

Dr. King would be 78 now, and I can’t believe that he would be too thrilled by what’s going on. In his view: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

We miss his leadership, all of us, whether we’re wise enough to realize it or not.

(y) (y) (y) Didn't Bobby Kennedy also make anti-war speeches in the mid-1960's before his untimely passing in 1967?

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

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:19 PM

:( :(

SCOTLAND A young Highland cow, a hardy breed, was up to its neck in icy snow in Carronbridge:

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/19/world/190_europe_4.jpg

************************************************** ***
January 19, 2007

Deadly Wind and Rain Storm Sweeps Europe

By MARK LANDLER

FRANKFURT, Jan. 18 — A howling gale churned through the British Isles and Northern Europe on Thursday, killing at least nine people, uprooting trees, shattering windows, flooding beaches and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights at airports from London to Frankfurt.

The storm, called Kyrill by German meteorologists, generated pelting rain in Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The fierce weather hampered efforts to rescue 26 sailors from a container ship they abandoned Thursday after it began listing in the English Channel.

It also prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cut short a visit to Berlin, where she conferred with Chancellor Angela Merkel about the Middle East. Ms. Rice left an hour early for London to beat the weather; her plane made a bumpy landing there amid winds gusting to 80 miles per hour.

“This is the worst storm since 2002,” said Burkhard Kirsch, a meteorologist at the German Weather Service, noting that a gust of 123 m.p.h. had been recorded in the mountains of central Germany.

The name Kyrill stems from a German practice of naming weather systems. Anyone may name one, for a fee. Naming a high-pressure system costs $385, while low-pressure systems, which are more common, go for $256. Three siblings paid to name this system as a 65th birthday gift for their father, not knowing that it would grow into a fierce storm.

“We hope ourselves that we’ll get out of it lightly,” Rumen Genow, one of the three, told a northern German newspaper on Thursday.

In Britain, three motorists were killed in storm-related accidents, Reuters reported, while a woman died when a wall collapsed on her in heavy winds. Two people were killed in the Netherlands after an uprooted tree crushed their car, the Dutch news agency ANP reported. In Germany, two people, one of them 18 months old, were killed by flying debris. A motorist was killed when he crashed his car into another car while swerving to avoid a fallen tree, the police said. At nightfall, with the storm bearing down on Germany, the national railway suspended all long-distance service. At Heathrow Airport, outside London, airlines canceled 123 flights, while in Frankfurt, 122 flights were canceled.

“The wind conditions are not preventing the planes from taking off or landing, but the air traffic control authorities have increased the separation between the aircraft for safety reasons,” said Robert A. Payne, a spokesman for Fraport, which operates the Frankfurt airport.

French and British helicopters were sent to rescue 26 sailors in a lifeboat off southwestern England. They had abandoned their container ship, the MSC Napoli, after it was damaged and lost power, Bloomberg reported.

Two British Navy helicopters saved the sailors, but the fate of the ship was unclear. At Rotterdam, a container ship slipped its moorings and struck an oil jetty, leaking 10,000 barrels of fuel, Dutch news reports said.

(}) ({) Definitely these people are in my late-night prayers.

:| Has anyone noticed the extremely unusual weather globally? IMHO, we need to make drastic changes within our own lifetimes.

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

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:20 PM

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

January 19, 2007

Ahead | Gem and Mineral Shows

Celebrating the Hard Stuff

By KEITH MULVIHILL

IN 1955, a handful of mineral enthusiasts (O.K., call them rock geeks) from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society got together to show off specimens from their personal collections at a local elementary school. From this small beginning, the annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show has grown into the largest event of its kind in the country, a mega-celebration for rock lovers and a curiously mesmerizing attraction for spectators who don’t know staurolite from Styrofoam. As many as 25,000 people are expected at this year’s show Feb. 8 to 11 in the Tucson Convention Center.

More than 125 exhibits will have rocks and gems from private collectors and from museums including the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Natural History in New York, the British Museum and the Mineralogical Museum at Harvard. There will be an opening reception, lectures, a micro-minerals room (where tiny crystals can be viewed through microscopes) and an educational “mineral maze” for children. And more than 300 vendors will hawk all sorts of mineral-related wares: piles of colorful gems and minerals, bits of meteorites, African beads, fossilized dinosaur dung (called coprolite), gold nuggets.

“It’s basically a giant museum exhibit that could never exist in an individual museum,” said Peter Megaw, an organizer of the show. “You’re seeing stuff in one place that you’d normally have to log a lot of miles all over the world to see.”

The show draws mineralogy fanatics but also has a wider appeal. After all, as Ed Clark, the president of the Ventura Gem and Mineral Society in California, said, “Who hasn’t seen a neat rock and picked it up and wondered why it looks the way it does?”

As the Tucson show has grown, dozens of satellite shows have sprung up all over Tucson to get in on the action. Today they are grouped into a broad community event called the Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase, running Jan. 26 to Feb. 11 this year. “I think if you had to pick one word to describe the whole scene, it would be ‘overwhelming,’ ” said Gene Meieran, an avid mineral collector who lives in Phoenix and will show off his collection of aquamarines (none for sale) in Tucson. “Practically every hotel and gas station has made space for people to show and sell stuff. Even if you spent 24 hours going around, you could not possibly see everything there is to see.” Of the ancillary events, he especially likes the Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show and the Westward Look Mineral Show. Both feature museum-quality items for sale.

Tucson has long been a mining center, but what made the Gem and Mineral Show take off in the early days was the participation of Paul E. Desautels, a curator of the Smithsonian’s mineral museum, whose interest attracted other curators and collectors. Before long, the show was the gem and mineral event of the year.

The timing doesn’t hurt either: the show is always in February, when Tucson has a distinct weather advantage.

Mineral shows take place all over the country — Rock & Gem magazine posts a list at www.rockngem.com — and several others are scheduled over the next few weeks. The Ventura society’s show in Ventura, Calif., will include a demonstration of cutting stones into the rounded shapes called cabochons. In Gaithersburg, Md., new acquisitions by the Smithsonian Institution will be on display at the Montgomery County show. Jim Fowler, an artist specializing in wrapping gem stones in wire for jewelry, will demonstrate his skill at the GemStreet USA Show in Cincinnati. And in Spokane, Wash., a lucky door-prize winner will walk away with a 200-pound piece of petrified wood.

“Going to shows is fun because you can learn so much about the world, and not only from the fossils and minerals,” said Vanessa Galloway, a Web and graphic designer in Tucson who also has a business making and selling jewelry. “There is so much cultural history surrounding antique beads, it’s really interesting.”

But for most people, the shows are about buying objects that they find beautiful. And on that aspect, Ms. Galloway has a word of caution. “You can spend every penny that your credit will allow,” she said. “So set a limit for yourself.”

Details

TUCSON

What: Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, (520) 322-5773; www.tgms.org.

When: Feb. 8 to 11, with related events Jan. 26 to Feb. 11.

CINCINNATI

What: Gemstreet USA Show, (216) 521-4367; www.gemstreetusa.com.

When: March 2 to 4.

VENTURA, CALIF.

What: Ventura Gem Show, (805) 648-4051; www.vgms.org.

When: March 3 and 4.

SPOKANE, WASH.

What: Rocks & Minerals of the Northwest; www.amfed.org/nfms/shows.

When: March 9 to 11.

GAITHERSBURG, MD.

What: Gem, Lapidary & Mineral Society of Montgomery County show; rockhounder.tripod.com.

When: March 10 and 11.

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Rock-hound that I have been/still am,

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

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:25 PM

:s

January 17, 2007

Sea Sends Distress Call in One-Note Chowders

By MOLLY O’NEILL

Stonington, Me.

DICK BRIDGES has big, calloused hands, hands that have been thickened by half a century of fishing, hands that can build a life and shape a community. They are not the sort of hands you expect to see mincing onions in a church kitchen. But on a recent Saturday evening Mr. Bridges grasped a flimsy knife, reached for a sack of yellow onions and launched into a soliloquy about fishing in America and the dish that tells the story: chowder.

The endlessly varied mélange that can banish chilblains and restore survivors of storms has never been merely a soup. Early Colonial versions called for fish to be layered along with onions, biscuits and water in a caldron; by the time Ishmael and Queequeg feasted on steaming bowls of the stuff, milk, cream and salt pork had found their way into the pot. Otherwise, the dish that helped Melville’s whalers tell time — “chowder for breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper” — changed very little for nearly 200 years.

Down Easters said that the more variety of fish in the pot, the “deepah the flavah.” Like most sons of sons of Maine fishermen, Mr. Bridges, 61, grew up eating fish stews that were as diverse and densely packed as the local waters.

Cod, haddock, white hake, halibut, cusk and dozens of other groundfish, fish that live near the ocean bottom, mingled with clams, shrimp, lobster and mussels under the creamy surface of the stew, cresting a puddle of yellow butter here, a slick of smoky pork fat there.

Today there is nothing but lobster to be fished commercially near Stonington. Lobster floats alone in the local chowder, pinking the cream and, in the mind of food lovers, perhaps elevating Everyman’s dish to luxury status. But when Mr. Bridges looks at a single species stew he sees a dangerously impoverished fishery.

“The only stable fishery is a diverse fishery,” he said. No place in the world is richer in lobster than the waters around Stonington today, but the population explosion was caused, in part, by the vanishing of the groundfish. “They fed on the young lobsters, the spats,” he said, “but the large fin fish are also part of an ecosystem that actually protects the lobster.” Even with good management, he said, the lobster, too, could disappear.

“And when they go,” he added, grasping one of the crustaceans from the counter of the church kitchen and in a single flourish twisting off its claws and tail, “the last of America’s Colonial industries will go with them.”

What chowder eater, nourished on soups rich with many kinds of fish, could listen to the scientists who began to worry in the 1970s about the effects of river damming, pollution and overfishing? Like most, Mr. Bridges continued to lower his metal-link scallop nets to the bottom of the ocean. He continued to plot his own course and to keep his whereabouts to himself. He continued to haul thousands of pounds of fish eve