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August 31, 2004NYC Traffic CamsThere are 45 cameras installed in key traffic points around Manhattan accessible from either the map or the list below. 10 cameras provide both streaming video or still images (), 35 cameras provide only still images (). Nifty! All the action of a NYC street on your desktop. The one of 8th Ave @ 34St is 1 block away from Penn Station/Madison Square Garden where the RNC is right now. Posted by TY at 9:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Flash from the past! 8 cd's!9 hours of dance hits await you in this awesome collection! This 8 cd collection is jam packed with the dance songs you learned to love on the dance floor. Check out the track listing. What a flash from the past! Posted by TY at 8:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Eyewitnesses are not reliableYahoo! News - Kerry Debate May Show Fickleness of Memory Some veterans and military records from the time back much of what Kerry says, but some others who also served say otherwise. Does this mean someone is lying? "I would give these people involved in the debate the benefit of the doubt that it's not political lying," says psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, of the University of California, Irvine, an expert on the reliability of eyewitness testimony. "It's sort of wanting to remember things in a certain way. That's probably why all these people seem so sincere. They may actually believe what they're saying." Far from being an indelible recording, human memory is fragile, incomplete, malleable and highly subject to suggestion, researchers have shown in dozens of studies. Scary stuff! Sounds like someone ought to find a fix and put out a patch... oh wait... Posted by TY at 8:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Funny Caption Contest?Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos - AFP
I think my caption would've been: "Fighting for a parking spot suddenly went up a level" Posted by TY at 8:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Satan's Laundromat ArrestedApparently pick up for taking a photo on a street. Satan's Laundromat: Go indirectly to jail And then it is covered in this article: New York City - 2004 Republican National Convention Posted by TY at 10:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 30, 2004Obvious isn't it?Bush's risky 9/11 legacy | csmonitor.com Several psychological studies have shown that, when confronted with images of 9/11, members of both political parties report having more positive feelings about Bush. One study, by the University of Missouri, even found that when individuals were simply reminded of their own mortality, they were more likely to be supportive of Bush. Well that certainly explains the results from this search: -First Night, Single Theme for Double Term: Sept. 11 That last one is especially ironic given the fact that NYC complained that it never got the federal funding it needs for security. I suppose this was obvious. Posted by TY at 8:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 29, 2004A fascinating blogA very thought provoking blog on controversial issues like genetics, race, ethnicity, and reproduction. Posted by TY at 10:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Interesting information about JHUThis would've been good to have as a Senior applying to JHU. Posted by TY at 5:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Values values valuesYahoo! News - `Values' pitch a potent elixir Dozens of interviews around the state produced a more textured definition. Values are described as traditional, patriotic, Christian, family, human, social, moral, ethical. Values also are referred to in financial terms, the monetary measure of homes, crops, cars, jobs, investment portfolios and overall quality of life. Values sure are complicated. Posted by TY at 4:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Caterpillar ApocalypseThe Awful Forums - Caterpillar apocalypse in my backyard (56k ends up like my tree) Today was a nice overcast day to mow the lawn but when I went outside I couldn't believe what I saw.. Be sure to look at the pictures at the top, and then scroll down to look for the one where he sets one on fire. Posted by TY at 4:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack New ways to shop for travelWSJ.com - A New Way to Shop For Travel Bargains Comparing Travel Search Engines A fast-growing class of travel search engines can help find good prices quickly: Name What it searches Examples Comment FareChaser www.farechase.com Looks at 150 or so travel Web sites for air, hotel and car rental prices. Found fare of $148 from Atlanta to Chicago's Midway airport. Lowest price on Orbitz for the same dates and to the same airport was $172 on Delta Air Lines. Yahoo Inc. recently bought it. Mobissimo www.mobissimo.com Currently only air fares, but company will add hotel and car-rental capability later this year. Search for inexpensive flight to New Orleans from New York City, turned up JetBlue flight for $166.70. Lowest price on CheapTickets.com was $239 on American Airlines. Searches non-U.S. travel sites, and plans to allow searches based on activity. (Example: New York to the beach, instead of New York to Jamaica.) SideStep www.sidestep.com Company says it searches "dozens" of travel Web sites. A search on www.sidestep-hotels.com for a room in Beverly Hills spotted a $98.47 nightly rate at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Beverly Hills. On Travelocity the price for the same class of room and same date was $129.94 a night. For hotels and car rentals, consumers can search Sidestep via any W Good to know. Posted by TY at 4:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Thoughts on Mortality drives votingBush's risky 9/11 legacy | csmonitor.com Several psychological studies have shown that, when confronted with images of 9/11, members of both political parties report having more positive feelings about Bush. One study, by the University of Missouri, even found that when individuals were simply reminded of their own mortality, they were more likely to be supportive of Bush. How curious! Posted by TY at 4:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack The Smoking, Spitting, Sexually Frustrated Chinese ChimpYahoo! News - Sexually frustrated chimp takes up smoking Sexual frustration has turned a Chinese chimpanzee from a mild-mannered simian into a problem primate who smokes cigarettes and spits at visitors, the Xinhua news agency says. WHOA. Posted by TY at 4:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 28, 2004"Vietnamese in U.S. and Vietnam Differ in Support of U.S. Presidential Candidates"NCM > Vietnamese in U.S. and Vietnam Differ in Support of U.S. Presidential Candidates Prior to the Democratic national convention in Boston, journalists in both mainstream and ethnic press queried Vietnamese in the United States and in Vietnam on their views of the two presidential candidates. The contrast is startling. Interesting! Posted by TY at 11:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Where are the bees?Why Are Killer Bees So Slow? - Aren't they supposed to be here already? By Brendan?I.?Koerner I've wondered this too! Posted by TY at 10:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack "Does investing really make you more Republican?"Buy Stock, Vote Bush - Does investing really make you more Republican? By Daniel?Gross The data rebuts the gut feeling that investors ought to support Bush. After all, there's a pretty stark divide between the two candidates on stock market-related issues. (Indeed, Forbes editor Rich Karlgaard and American Enterprise Institute fellow Eric Engen have recently, and disingenuously, argued that the market's recent slump can be ascribed in some part to the fear that John Kerry would raise taxes on capital gains and dividends. They seem to believe that presidents can change tax policy by executive fiat.) But Bush is not benefiting. "Investors aren't supporting Bush to the degree I would have expected at the beginning of the year," says pollster Scott Rasmussen, who charts the confidence of investors daily. His most recent poll shows Bush and Kerry tied at 47-47 among all voters, and essentially tied among investors, 48-47. Interesting! Posted by TY at 9:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack A bad day at work?I couldn't imagine it was something to do with the reactor. Before it happened there were no vibrations, no sounds, nothing to indicate there was something wrong. We were trained for various emergency situations. We were engineers, and we were trained in what the reactors could or could not do and what could go wrong. We were prepared for fire and other things, but we were not trained for this. We all thought the safety measures were reliable, that if you pressed the emergency stop button to lower the control rods into the reactor - which is what my friend Leonid Toptunov in the control room did that night - that it would stop the power as it was supposed to. But it didn't. People make mistakes, but we thought the safety measures would compensate for that. We believed what we were told in the work manual. Yep. That's gonna be a bad day at work at Chernobyl... Interesting though: . From where I stood I could see a huge beam of projected light flooding up into infinity from the reactor. It was like a laser light, caused by the ionisation of the air. It was light-bluish, and it was very beautiful. I watched it for several seconds. If I'd stood there for just a few minutes I would probably have died on the spot because of gamma rays and neutrons and everything else that was spewing out. It's interesting how humans can be mesmerized by lights... kinda like the bug that few into the zapper in A Bug's Life. Posted by TY at 5:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack " Americans Feeling Worse and Experts Aren't Sure Why"Yahoo! News - Americans Feeling Worse and Experts Aren't Sure Why More and more Americans say their physical and mental health is deteriorating, according to a new survey that's raising concerns among health experts. Interesting! Posted by TY at 4:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Mutual Fund FAQYahoo! News - Learn the Basics of Mutual Funds Some 93 million Americans own shares of mutual funds, but many of these people have only vague ideas of how they work. Here are some common questions and the answers to them. Good to know. Posted by TY at 4:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 26, 2004Is it better to buy a remaining 04 or wait for the 05's?AutoSpies.com - Is it better to buy a remaining 04 or wait for the 05's? This is a pretty good video clip explaining the difference. Unfortunately, it makes me realize just how screwed I was by buying the last 323i made in the year 2000. :( Posted by TY at 8:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack The Kerry Tax PlanTHE KERRY TAX PLAN Higher-income taxpayers would pay more under Sen. Kerry's tax proposals. Here are some highlights on how they would be affected: Hm, so I'd have to make $275,000 to see a tax increase? Posted by TY at 8:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Who is George Soros?Worldandnation: He's the billionaire primed to fight Bush At 74, Soros is one of the world's richest people, worth an estimated $7-billion, thanks to his knack for spotting global and economic trends before others. Considered one of the century's greatest financial wizards, he places massive bets on hunches about fluctuations in global markets. This article is a pretty good bio of who Soros is. I always wondered why he was dumping so much money to the elections. Posted by TY at 8:16 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack Flash Mob OperaIf the people won't go to the opera, bring the opera to them and when they least expect it. Neat! Posted by TY at 8:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Please donate to Palo AltoMercuryNews.com | 08/26/2004 | Requests pile up for school aid When Cindy and Peter Ziebelman opened their son's Gunn High back-to-school packet last week, they saw a letter from the Parent Teacher Student Association asking for a donation of $300 per student to defray classroom costs. And one from the Gunn Parents Service Boosters Club suggesting donations of $25 to $200 to support students' community-service clubs. And another from the Gunn Foundation for college scholarships. One more from the Gunn Robotics Team. And the Choir Boosters. And on and on. And that's just for their eldest of three children who attend Palo Alto public schools. How ironic given the fact that an average house in Palo Alto costs $283749287342984.99! And even then, this school ranks far behind good ol' Great Neck South in Long Island which doesn't have these pleas for help. Posted by TY at 6:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack August 25, 2004Hiding drugs? Nah.. just a blackberryThe attitude of family and friends forces Mrs. Burack to do what any self-respecting nonrelaxer must do: deceive, beguile and swindle. Last March in Hawaii, for example, her husband expressed shock that she hadn't brought her BlackBerry. But "I had it," she admits. "I was hiding it." She used it when everyone else was asleep, and if they weren't, she would sneak into the bathroom or the closet. The closet? "Oh, yeah, that's nothing," she says. The future is here! Some people just can't take a real break from work. Harboring an abiding certitude that something tragic will happen when they aren't looking -- including possibly to them -- they spend great sums and drive great distances dowsing for a few bars of cellular signal or BlackBerry link. Loved ones, though, rarely understand that the very possibility of missing something big at the office is more tragic than spending hard-earned money to effectively set up a satellite office beachside. That forces the helplessly connected to abandon all semblance of dignity just to get their fix. It's another sign of how much work can contaminate leisure. Heh. Posted by TY at 6:48 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack Catepillar hellThe Awful Forums - Caterpillar apocalypse in my backyard (56k ends up like my tree)
Posted by TY at 2:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 24, 2004Beware of Vin Diesel's DogVin Diesel: Vin Diesel's dog crotch bite caused ?8M lawsuit Vin Diesel's pet dog caused an 8millionGBP lawsuit - by biting a Hollywood screenwriter in the crotch. Watch out for the dog! Posted by TY at 8:57 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack An interesting talk on OutsourcingTake it Live with Tom Peters - Outsource-Proof Your Career Interesting! Posted by TY at 2:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 23, 2004Cheap Cell PhonesWSJ.com - New Cellphones for Less Web sites like Wirefly.com and LetsTalk.com, which get fees from the carriers for bringing in new customers, are offering phones for less if you sign up for your cellphone service through them. LetsTalk.com is giving away the Sony Ericsson T637 free to customers who use its Web site to sign up for service with AT&T Wireless; AT&T Wireless is charging new customers $149.99 for that phone. Shoppers who sign up with Cingular via Wirefly get the popular palmOne Treo 600 for $299.99 versus $499.99 if they go through Cingular. Good to know! Posted by TY at 11:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Interview with a terrorist - sort ofPandagon: Annie's Got A Gun... Annie Jacobsen, discredited paranoid and the white woman who actually made herself seem like more of a terrorist than the 14 Arabic men she says were acting suspiciously, is back, desperately trying to prove her point. She interviews Billie Jo Rodriguez, apparently also a passenger on the flight, and the results are hilarious. This is pretty funny Posted by TY at 11:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack How to get an interviewYou know those life sized celebrity cardboard cutouts that adorn the occasional geek office? I decided to build a cardboard cutout of me and send it along with my resume as the model Microsoft employee. To figure out how large it could be, I visited the FedEx office and asked for the maximum dimensions for something shipped next-day air. Although I dont recall the exact numbers, it was something like 170 inches for combined length and girth. Not only did I want it to be as close to actual size as possible, but I wanted it to make a splash when it was delivered to the HR department in Redmond. After all, how many next-day air packages have you received that were much bigger than a standard letter? Now that's a story. Click the link to see a picture of it. Posted by TY at 10:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack CSS Question Driving Me Nuts - Help!I'm stumped by this CSS: Posted by TY at 9:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack AT&T Wireless ranks worstAT&T Wireless ranks worst in cell survey - Aug. 19, 2004 AT&T Wireless ranks worst in cell survey Considering that they just recently overcharged me by $3xx, I'll have to agree. Posted by TY at 5:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 22, 2004How bizarreThe New York Times > Washington > Image > Connections and Contradictions
Click the link to see a bigger version. Small word! Posted by TY at 1:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack bye bye lobstersYahoo! News - Explanation Sought for Lobster Decline Maine's lobstermen have been hauling up phenomenal numbers for almost 15 years. Their 62.3 million pounds in 2002 set a record triple the typical catch during the 1980s. That's more than $200 million worth of lobster and by far the dominant share of the Northeast's most valuable fishery. But can it last? Starting in the late 1990s, in the southern reaches of its near-shore commercial range, the big-clawed American lobster prized for its delicate, sweet flesh has been withering at an alarming rate from New York state to Massachusetts. Signs of decline have now crept as far north as the southern Gulf of Maine, the edge of the country's lobster breadbasket. Oh great... so now we're running out of lobsters? I blame the woman in the previous post. Here's an intereseting fact: In early America, demand was low, and lobster was plentiful. In those days, it was fed to servants and prisoners. Sometimes it was just thrown down as crop fertilizer. Philip Bramhall's grandfather told him that even in his time, bars sometimes served lobster like popcorn. Go figure! Posted by TY at 12:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Woman eats 38 lobsters in 12 minsYahoo! News - Woman Chows 38 Lobsters in Eating Contest America's top speed-eater wolfed down 38 lobsters in 12 minutes Saturday to win the World Lobster Eating Contest. Whoa. It takes me like 40 mins to eat 1 lobster at our cafeteria here... of course maybe that's somewhat due to the fact that they don't give us any tools. Posted by TY at 12:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 21, 2004"Wrong Numbers" and Stock Tips on Your Answering Machine"Wrong Numbers" and Stock Tips on Your Answering Machine You come home after a long, honest day's work, stroll by your message machine, and see the light blinking. Did a loved one call with good news? Is there a friend calling to find out what you're doing tomorrow? Some people are finding that they have instead received a "misdialed" call from a stranger, leaving a "hot" investment tip for a friend. The message is designed to sound as if the speaker didn't realize that he or she was leaving the hot tip on the wrong machine. Maybe the message sounds like this: Ah... social hacking. Posted by TY at 3:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack If only it supported 850The Orange SPV C500 (aka Qtek 8010 aka i-mate Smartphone 3 aka Dopod 565) looks like such an awesome Smartphone. Too bad it doesn't seem to support 850mhz which is what ATTWS/Cingular is deploying in the USA. ARGH. Posted by TY at 3:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Funny AdsThe Spec Spot - Commercial Production - spot_library This site is chockfull of funny ads! Posted by TY at 2:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Child Pimp & Ho CostumesWell I suppose Halloween is around the corner... sort of... Posted by TY at 1:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Guantanamo, NYCNew York Daily News - Boroughs - Albor Ruiz: 200 locked away & under the radar Many of the Wackenhut prisoners - people from all over the world - have been deprived of freedom for years even though no terrorism-related or other criminal charges have been brought against any of them. "Yet they are locked up 23 hours per day, and several have been there a year or more," said Bobby Khan, a member of the Coney Island Avenue Project, a group based in the Pakistani community in Brooklyn that advocates for the rights of imprisoned immigrants. Holy cow. And that's in NYC! In Queens! UPDATE: This is what it looks like - More info at this link. Apparently this was in Fortune Magazine's list of "America's Most Admired Companies" in 2002. Yet "They have been implicated in several cases of abuse and rape, including the nightly raping of a 14-year-old girl." Posted by TY at 1:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack The Cat from Hell- VideoOh my god. (Don't worry - it's in English. Even the painful screaming.) Want to adopt it? Posted by TY at 1:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 20, 2004Great airplane tripUSATODAY.com - How to love 18 hours in coach 11:50 a.m. It takes a few minutes for the layout to sink in. The chairs are unbelievably comfortable. At 20 inches wide, they are two inches or so larger than industry-standard coach. And thanks to the heavy weight penalty that Singapore Airlines is taking to allow the aircraft to do the 10,000-mile non-stop, there is 37 inches of legroom. That's as much as six inches more than standard coach. In fact, the entire A340-500 is a slave to weight and distance. Airbus says the plane can carry 313 passengers, but Singapore has had to trim it to just 181 seats. And only 117 of them are in coach, configured 2x3x2. (The last two rows, 46 and 47, are 2x2x2.) Wow, this Newark-Singapore service sounds fantastic! Posted by TY at 11:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack BugMeNot is backPosted by TY at 11:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 19, 2004Best Vehicle Value HoldingTops after 3 years Automotive Lease Guide (ALG) has issued a new rating system that shows which new vehicles do the best at holding their value over three years. Vehicles are rated Five-Star if they were among the top 10% among 260 measured by ALG. Four-Star vehicles were among the next 20%. Three-Star vehicles were among the middle 40%. Two-Star vehicles were among those rating in the next 20%. And One-Star vehicles ranked in the bottom 10%. Five star vehicles Acura, NSX, RL GMC Yukon Honda Odyssey, Accord Infiniti G35 Volvo C70,S60,V40,V70 Nissan Frontier Porsche GT2 Toyota 4Runner, Celica, RAV4, Sequoia, Tacoma, Tundra Mercedes Benz CLK Mini Cooper Lexus ES330, GS300, GS430, GX470, RX330, SC430 Click the link to see more. What the heck? The Yukon is lumped in the first tier?? The Chevy Tahoe is lumped with the BMW 3 series?? Posted by TY at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Those cats multiply!Meyer told officers that about five years ago he had just four cats. The feline family grew from there. Yipes! Posted by TY at 10:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Citibank Exec becomes Prime MinisterInternational News Article | Reuters.com Pakistani Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz easily won a seat in parliament, clearing the way for him to take over as prime minister next week, officials said on Thursday. The former Citibank executive bagged 76,161 votes against 29,443 for his main opponent in Attock district of central Punjab province, where he narrowly survived a suicide bombing on July 30, an Election Commission official said. Wow... talk about a career change! Posted by TY at 10:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Long commute!Yahoo! News - Science Photos - Reuters
From Martha's Vineyard to Africa? That's a long commute! Posted by TY at 10:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Kennedy on No-Fly ListYahoo! News - Error Puts Kennedy on Airline No-Fly List Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) on Thursday said he had been misidentified on a terrorism watch list when he tried to board airliners between Washington and Boston. The well-known Massachusetts Democrat was stopped five times as he tried to board US Airways shuttles because a name similar to his appeared on a list or his name popped up for additional screening. Sheesh... imagine how much it would suck if your name was on the list by accident. Posted by TY at 10:07 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack Mass HysteriaYahoo! News - Mass Hysteria Strikes Small Rural U.S. High School Ten healthy female students at a rural, co-ed North Carolina high school had repeated bouts of seizures, swooning and hyperventilation over a four-month period in 2002 -- an outbreak that experts are calling an example of mass hysteria. The first girl began experiencing seizures in August. Over the next few weeks, more girls began to show the same symptoms. The attacks escalated throughout the fall months, then appeared to taper off by the winter holiday break. Whoa... how weird! Posted by TY at 10:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 18, 2004Sucks to be this MSFT employeeGuardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Microsoft pays dear for insults through ignorance For example when employees were arrested in Turkey because Kurdistan had been shown as a separate entity on maps of the country, a decision was taken to remove Kurdistan from all maps. "Of course we offended Kurds by doing this but we had offended the Turks more and they were a much more important market for our products. It was a hard commercial decision, not political." Doh! Posted by TY at 11:28 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack Which diet to go on?Weight Watchers - The skinny on which trendy diet is best. By Dan?Crane The skinny on which trendy diet is best This is a pretty funny (but useful) review of all the major diet plans that are going on right now. Also interesting: how many diets is Rene? Zellweger on?? Posted by TY at 10:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack Crack down on 17MercuryNews.com | 08/18/2004 | Hwy. 17 patrols cut accidents, deaths The Highway Patrol will be out in force Thursday on Highway 17, on the Santa Cruz County side of the hill, cracking down on speeders, drunken drivers, lane changers and tailgaters. Then, on Aug. 27, officers will saturate Highway 1. Enforcement was beefed up on these roads in January, and collisions on Highway 17 have fallen 40 percent while deaths were cut in half through the first six months. Good to know! Posted by TY at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack not guilty - "you are guilty as sin"AP Wire | 08/17/2004 | Md. Judge Acquits College Football Player A judge, while acknowledging he believed a college football player was "guilty as sin," acquitted him of charges related to a run-in with police after a lawyer argued that a conviction could end the player's career. What the heck? Posted by TY at 1:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack What to name your kidsWell, here's a hint: Naming him after great grandpa Tucker may lead to playground ridicule and occasional beatings, but give it a few years: The chicks will dig it. Men with short vowel names, such as Tucker, Bill or Keith, are perceived as sexier by the ladies. Don't take my word on it. In fact, don't take my experience on it. Listen to the source the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Amy Perfors, who is a researcher and linguist at MIT, posted picture of 24 friends of both genders on the Web site HotorNot.com. She included first names and had people rate their appeal. She played mix and match with the names and pictures, so she could be confident people were responding to the names, not the photos. For men, hard names rated well, front vowels, vowels you make with the front of your mouth, Matt, for instance. The back of the vowel names like George and Paul? Not as sexy. Interesting! Posted by TY at 12:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack More details about the next 3-seriesAutoWeek - The Auto Enthusiast's Online Resource The new 3 Series grows appreciably in every vital dimension in a move obviously aimed at ensuring it doesn?t encroach too much on the new 1 Series. At 178 inches long, 71.5 inches wide and 56 inches high, it is 1.2 inches longer, a considerable 3.0 inches wider and less than a half-inch taller than the outgoing model. It also rides on a wheelbase that is 1.4 inches longer, at 108.7 inches. Sounds interesting. But how will the interior look in real life? Posted by TY at 12:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Jury Waivers invalid in California?WSJ.com - Companies Ask People To Waive Right to Jury Trial Earlier this year, an appeals court in California effectively nullified all predispute jury waivers in the state when it ruled that a waiver in a corporate contract violated the state Constitution. That decision has been appealed, and the case now sits with the state's Supreme Court. In Texas, meanwhile, lower courts have split on the issue of jury waivers. The Texas Supreme Court has already heard arguments in a case involving a jury waiver in a commercial lease, and is expected to issue a decision that will establish a precedent for the state. This is interesting because my oral surgeon always makes me sign one. Hrm... Posted by TY at 12:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack There's no money in moving peopleWhy is the airline industry so bad financially? That's an age-old question, posed anew by Middle Seat readers after last week's look at the current financial crisis facing carriers. The short answer is that no one in history has ever made money by moving people -- not stage-coach lines, railroads, steamships or airlines. There's a high cost of capital and no way to inventory excess product -- empty seats spoil when the door closes. The current airline situation, of course, is more complicated. Of course, that completely ignores the present success of Southwest and JetBlue. However, their success is fairly recent compared to the history of mass transit. The only reason I post this is because it always annoys me when politicians propose to cut Amtrak funding saying that it should be run like a private enterprise. Er. Like what? Posted by TY at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack New Implantable lenses!WSJ.com - FDA Expected to Approve New Corrective Eye Surgery Paving the way for yet another entrant to the increasingly crowded field of corrective eye procedures, the Food and Drug Administration is expected in coming days to approve implants that would allow severely nearsighted people to shed their glasses. In the latest procedure, a tiny corrective lens is implanted directly in the eye. Doctors expect the FDA to approve the first of these new lenses any day now. A second competing lens could get a green light soon, too. Anyone want to try these out and let me know how they work out? Posted by TY at 12:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Top party schools!Yahoo! News - Albany Is Top Party School in Nation Beating Harvard or Yale on a list of rankings would ordinarily make administrators at the State University of New York at Albany beam. But not when it wins the nation's No. 1 party school crown. What? Hopkins didn't make the list? :) Posted by TY at 12:06 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack What are those lucky cats?Lucky cats are the Asian version of the piggy banks??feed? the cat a coin each day to signify success. Paw position is important: a raised left paw attracts money and prosperity; a raised right paw invites good luck. And now you know. Posted by TY at 12:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Realtors - what a scam?Realty Bites - Why do you still need an agent to buy a home? By Douglas?Gantenbein Here's why: Americans will spend about $1.14 trillion buying 6 million homes this yearboth records. Yet the flat commissions paid to the realtors who handle the vast majority of those sales, averaging 5.1 percent, act as an enormous tax on the transaction process, taking wealth from both buyers and sellers in what for both is often the biggest financial transaction of their lives. It's true that selling a house is a complex task. But so is writing a will, and an attorney doesn't ask for 5 percent or 6 percent of your net worth as compensation. Very interesting piece. Indeed - the price of so many services have fallen because of the internet... except this. Some one needs to disrupt this market. Posted by TY at 12:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack Going protesting? Don't forget the coupons!N.Y. Mayor To War Protesters: Shop Till You Drop, Too (washingtonpost.com) The program to welcome radicals comes backed by the full marketing power of the city's tourist wing, NYC & Co. Link to a Peaceful Political Activists home page through www.nycvisit.com, (we're not kidding), and find pages of events and every legally permitted demonstration. Stuck with time to kill between the Planned Parenthood demonstration and the Ukuleles for Sanity Concert? Take the "Bohemians and Beats of Greenwich Village" tour, walk by Stonewall Place (where the Gay Liberation Movement took militant wing), and end up with another tour: "Radical and Immigrant Heritage of the Lower East Side. Walk the streets where . . . socialists, anarchists and free-thinkers gathered." Some of the lists prepared by the tourism agency are tailored to political tastes, but a certain ecumenicalism is assumed. The Museum of Sex offers the same $5 discount to Republicans and protesters. Pretty neat idea! Posted by TY at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 17, 2004"Most overpriced places in 2004"MSNBC - Most overpriced places in 2004 Most overpriced places in 2004 Cities where cost of living outweighs growth potential Interesting! Crap! Those are all the places I want to live! Posted by TY at 12:49 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack "Gene Blocker Turns Monkeys Into Workaholics "ABCNEWS.com : Gene Blocker Turns Monkeys Into Workaholics - Study Procrastinating monkeys were turned into workaholics using a gene treatment to block a key brain compound, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. Blocking cells from receiving dopamine made the monkeys work harder at a task -- and they were better at it, too, the U.S. government researchers found. Neat! Posted by TY at 12:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 16, 2004Caskets R Us?Yahoo! News - Costco Begins Test Marketing Caskets On Monday, Costco Wholesale Corp., better known for bulk chicken and cases of soda, started test marketing caskets along side mattresses at a North Side Chicago store and one in suburban Oak Brook. "This is certainly something that can be an easy value," said Gina Bianche, a buyer in Costco's corporate office in Issaquah, Wash. "I don't want to say cheap value, but it just needs to be done." Each of the six models from the Universal Casket Co., in colors including lilac and Neapolitan blue, is priced at $799.99, made of 18-gauge steel, considered medium weight for caskets, and can be delivered within 48 hours. I hear that in Europe, they have lots of one stop shopping stores for all things funeral-related. Posted by TY at 10:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack A fascinating series on IndiaThe Seattle Times: Business & Technology: India parlays education, timing into tech boom India parlays education, timing into tech boom Check out this article, and the 3 that are related. Fascinating stuff. Posted by TY at 1:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 15, 2004Where is everyone?Yahoo! News - Empty Olympic stadiums set off alarm bells ATHENS (AFP) - IOC (news - web sites) officials, worried by the television images being flashed around the world of athletes competing in near empty stadiums, have told the Athens Games organisers to give tickets away for free if necessary. On Saturday, the first full day of competition, weightlifter Nurcan Taylan became the first Turkish woman to win an Olympic gold medal but her feat was achieved in a near empty stadium. On Sunday, tennis superstars Venus Williams (news - web sites) and Andy Roddick, used to playing to packed courts, began their Olympic quest to vacant stands. Indeed. While watching the Olympics in HD, the empty seats are especially obvious. Where is everyone? I think I want to go to the Olympics one of these years. Maybe in 2008 in Beijing? Will they have free tickets galore? I hear there are a few more people in China though :( Posted by TY at 10:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Loyalty Oath?Yahoo! News - Never a hostile question for campaigning Bush At an "Ask President Bush" in Oregon Friday, he was asked to appoint conservative judges; heard that his tax cuts promote growth; and received an emotional tribute from the sister-in-law of an Iraq-bound US soldier. While he has yet to face a hostile questioner, angry attacks on Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry (news - web sites) abound. In Beaverton, Bush supporters accused the Massachusetts senator of having a "fuzzy memory," of winning two of his five Vietnam war medals for "self-inflicted scratches." But would-be Bush hecklers face daunting obstacles: Loyalists handle giving out tickets to the event; home-made signs and banners are often forbidden; and in some cases access hinges on signing a loyalty oath. A loyalty oath? I wonder what it says! Posted by TY at 10:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack "U.S. Men Stunned by Puerto Rico, 92-73"Yahoo! News - U.S. Men Stunned by Puerto Rico, 92-73 In an upset as historic as it was inevitable, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and the rest of the U.S. basketball team lost 92-73 to Puerto Rico on Sunday, only the third Olympic loss ever for America and its first since adding pros. That's just pathetic. Was Iverson too busy fretting about his parking tickets problem? Posted by TY at 5:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Goggles of the futureNike permanently affixes goggles to Olympic swimmers eyes - Engadget - www.engadget.com If youre planning on swimming in the Olympics, youve got to be prepared to go the extra mile to shave off a few hundredths of a second off your time. Its not enough to have laser remove all your body hair and wear rubber band underwear anymore, now Nike wants you to use their latest drag-killing device, the strapless water goggles. How does it work? Two independent goggle lenses get afixed to your eye sockets with medical-grade adhesive (read: superglue). Say, while youre at it, why dont you just get your toes and fingers sewn together like a duck? Neat! Posted by TY at 5:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack It looks like a joint!The 2004 Olympics - Greeks bearing glowsticks at the opening ceremony. By Dana?Stevens 11:36 p.m.: I knew at some point they were going to get all Cirque de Soleil on our ass. The ceremony draws to a close with a symbolic torch relay: Dancers dressed as athletes, each bearing a noble glowstick, "fly" on wires 50 feet above the stadium toward the Olympic torch, which lies propped against the stadium floor like a giant joint in an ashtray. I totally thought the same thing! Posted by TY at 12:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 14, 2004Man loses right handA Hong Kong man whose right hand was chopped off by two assailants in a busy restaurant might have been wrongly targeted, a newspaper reported Sunday. Oops! Posted by TY at 10:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Flesh eating bacteria!Yahoo! News - Texas Man Dies From Flesh-Eating Bacteria A man has died from flesh-eating bacteria that entered his body through a minor cut on his leg. Dr. Kenneth Dean Creamer, 52, died late Thursday in a Victoria hospital where he had been treated since July 17, two days after he was exposed to the saltwater bacteria vibrio vulnificus. Yipes! Posted by TY at 10:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack "Hoodlums have killed her cat and hanged its gutted body"The State | 08/12/2004 | A Wiccan wins one in South Carolina While Great Falls chews on its defeat, the plaintiff Wynne seeks surcease. Her home has been vandalized nine times. Hoodlums have killed her cat and hanged its gutted body. Someone put sand in the gas tank of her truck. Townspeople have ostracized her. Even so, she comes across over the telephone as the most cheerful Witch I ever met. My acquaintance is limited, to be sure, but in this one I stand on the ladys side. Click the link to see why this happened... Posted by TY at 2:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Bye bye 747Yahoo! News - Is this old bird about to get its wings clipped? A glorious legacy Those were the days. This is a piece on the sad demise of the 747. Posted by TY at 2:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Bye bye 747Yahoo! News - Is this old bird about to get its wings clipped? A glorious legacy Those were the days. This is a piece on the sad demise of the 747. Posted by TY at 2:23 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack August 13, 2004"Wealth and Happiness"On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 means "not at all satisfied with my life" and 7 means "completely satisfied," it's no surprise that survey-respondents who make Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans average 5.8, while homeless pavement dwellers in Calcutta average 2.9. All in all, sleeping on sidewalks and starving can't hold a candle to sleeping on satin and splurging. Not so fast. In the surveys, taken off and on over the last 20 years, the Inuit people of frigid northern Greenland also average 5.8. So do the cattle-herding Masai of Kenya, who live in dung huts with no electricity or running water. And Calcutta's slum dwellers, for whom being only a single economic rung above the pavement denizens apparently makes a huge difference, come in at 4.6. Whoa! I'd post more, but I gotta go buy some happiness... Posted by TY at 6:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Reducing Healthcare CostsWSJ.com - Behind Aetna's Turnaround: Small Steps to Pare Cost of Care Aetna still keeps a close eye on costs, but it is trying to make allies out of former enemies. Aetna's chief medical officer, William Popik, cites a case last year when his department tracked down three hemophilia experts, seeking advice about treating a hemophiliac boy whose care was costing $500,000 a month. The three doctors spent hours reviewing the case. Then they recommended adjusting the boy's care so he wouldn't need such large doses of a blood factor meant to help clotting. The boy's own physician embraced the changes. Within months, treatment costs dropped 75% and the child's health improved, Aetna says. Wow... now that's a cost savings! I like this part the best: Mr. Williams says EMIS helps him ferret out creeping costs so Aetna can react quickly. Sitting in his first-floor office in Hartford overlooking the Aetna parking lot, he taps on his keyboard to see whether some of the health insurer's members are visiting emergency rooms too much for nonemergency reasons, such as for the flu or a sprained ankle. My favorite example is the dermatologist I was seeing who worked 3 days a week. Now granted, it's unlikely that I'd have a dermatological emergency, but still... what a PITA! I wish more quality doctors would have more convenient hours. There are a few other proactive measures in this interesting article... Posted by TY at 6:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Tax Burden for Middle Class UpYahoo! News - Study: Tax Burden Shifts to Middle Class President Bush (news - web sites)'s tax cuts since 2001 have shifted more of the tax burden from the nation's rich to middle-class families, according to a study released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites). The tax rate declined across all income levels but more so in the top brackets, the report said. People in the top 20 percent of incomes, averaging $182,700 a year, saw their share of federal taxes decline from 65.3 percent of total payments in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year, according to the study by congressional budget analysts. In contrast, middle-class taxpayers with incomes ranging from $51,500 to $75,600 bear a greater tax burden. Those making an average of $75,600 had the biggest jump in their share of taxes, from 18.5 percent of all payments in 2001 to 19.5 percent this year. No wonder I've been unable to retire lately! Posted by TY at 6:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Why we should drill in the artic?Yahoo! News - AP: Most U.S. Oil, Gas Leases Unexplored Despite soaring oil and gas prices, oil companies and individuals who own nearly 30 million acres of nonproducing federal oil and gas leases have made little effort to transform them into energy producers, federal records show. I guess we have no choice but to drill holes that will also never be used in the artic... Posted by TY at 9:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Flip flopYahoo! News - Bush Backs Off Idea of National Sales Tax BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - President Bush (news - web sites) is distancing himself from suggestions that he wants to replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax, saying "People shouldn't worry about me raising taxes." Whoops! However, the majority of people will likely only remember the first part - that he came up with the idea of eliminating income tax in the next 4 years. no one is going to remember the flip flop. Posted by TY at 9:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Bye bye privacyWe appeared in grade-school choir concerts, scratching ourselves awkwardly or finding our noses with our fingers. As feisty teens, we wrote angry manifestos for college newspapers. As young adults, we kissed our sweethearts on busy street corners, thrilled by the private publicness of it all. Those public moments were fleeting, and rarely had any bearing on the rest of our lives. But young people today, who live in an age of reality TV and security concerns that led to the Patriot Act, likely won't have that luxury. While most adults have a Web presence that dates back no further than 1994, today's kids will enter adulthood with far more of their lives in plain view. This could impact their interactions with college-admissions officers, prospective employers, even love interests. Scott McNealy of Sun once said: You have no privacy, get over it. Posted by TY at 1:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack How to GrillA Work In Progress: Everything You Thought You Knew About Grilling Is Wrong There are a few extremely simple secrets. Once you learn a good marinade (I'll include on at the bottom), you'll be amazed at the results. Trust me. The tips on this blog were very very useful. Posted by TY at 1:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack August 12, 2004Which leader are you?Take the 45 question test and respond with what leader you are. I'm not too pleased with my result so I'll only tell you if you ask me :( Posted by TY at 5:45 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack Subfolders OfflineThere is a local GPO setting which makes sure to include ALL your subfolders ALWAYS: Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Network/Offline Files There you?ll find Subfolders always available offline and get this thing enabled! Posted by TY at 2:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Mensa?American Mensa, Ltd. - Join Mensa Overview Prospective members The only qualification for Mensa membership is a score in the top 2% of the general population on a standardized intelligence test. Scores are accepted by one of two means: Woot! It turns out that I qualify already based on Prior Testing! Nifty! But it's $49 to join, with an annual renewal - not so nifty. Should I join? Are you a member? Posted by TY at 1:35 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack Will we all work 24/7?As midnight strikes, more Americans head to work | csmonitor.com Roused by the clamor of a 24-7 globe, the American workforce is increasingly seizing the wee hours - a groggy but growing graveyard shift where Brown and others toil in an alternate universe on the far side of midnight. Once the haunt of cops and bakers, the night shift is now the fastest growing, according to the census: One in five Americans now goes to work between midnight and 6:30 a.m. To be sure, that includes day workers who rise before roosters. But another study, from Shiftwork Solutions in San Rafael, Calif., shows that one in four American workers now work outside the traditional Monday-through-Friday day shift, up significantly from ten years ago. And just as many prefer those "nontraditional" shifts, says Jim Dillingham, a consultant with Shiftworks Solutions. This is something I've wondered about from time to time. Will we all be required to work 24/7 in the future? Just to make ends meet and keep up with the competition? Are we in a race "to the bottom"? Posted by TY at 1:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack A good Chinese restaurantSan Francisco Examiner: Soy and sweet at Shanghai Shanghai Dumpling Shop features some of the most authentic Chinese food I've had outside of China. The service is friendly and the dishes are served quickly and piping hot. Brace yourself for cooking that is oilier and more sugary than other Chinese cuisines, though, so request some extra napkins, loosen your belt and get ready for some soy sauce-flavored lip gloss. It's good... but I think I still prefer Joe's Shanghai in NYC. Anyway, this place has a new location: 455 broadway, millbrae. Posted by TY at 1:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Interesting history of PresidentsYahoo! News - Levers of Power Can Give Incumbent an Edge An incumbent president seeking re-election can have a clear advantage, especially in foreign policy. With a powerful military and vast diplomatic corps at his disposal, President Bush (news - web sites) can make things happen. As just one of 100 senators, John Kerry (news - web sites) can't. Some interesting history! Posted by TY at 1:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Skin merged with couchWFTV.com - News - 600-Pound Woman Dies After Being Surgically Removed From Couch Using planks, they loaded the woman on to the trailer, still attached to the couch. Removing her would be too painful, since her body is grafted to the fabric. After years of staying put, her skin has literally become one with the sofa and it must be surgically removed. WHOA. Posted by TY at 1:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Woot!Check out Woot! - a strange online store. Here's a blurb about it: collision detection: The weirdest e-commerce store ever Posted by TY at 12:59 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack August 11, 2004When is the bus coming?HOLY CRAP! This would've been so useful for Urban Challenge. It tells you when the next Muni is going to be at your station in real time using GPS information. Right now it only works for the rail lines and 1 bus line. Oh this would've been so cool... Posted by TY at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 10, 2004Thanks AT&T WirelessIt's always disconcerting to open your cell phone bill and see that you owe $356.44 - especially if your previous bill was just $47.82. Oh! Look! A retail equipment charge of $323.81. Good thing I haven't bought anything since 11/2003 when I bought the awful MPX-200 which I then returned, and had to wait 6 months for a full refund after 5 calls (one of which I had to wait on hold for 1.5 hours) and 2 faxes. Thanks AT&T Wireless. Thanks for making my day. Posted by TY at 11:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack HMOs to cut costsYahoo! News - HMOs Bringing Back Unpopular Cost Controls -Survey Now, with health care costs rising at least twice the rate of inflation, HMOs are again tightening controls on patient care, according to 260 interviews with HMO and hospital executives, employers and regulators in 12 nationally-representative communities published in the journal Health Affairs. "They are trying to target high cost services and those where they see a spike in use," said Glen Mays, a health policy professor at the University of Arkansas, and study author. Sluggish economic growth is also putting pressure on HMOs to step up cost containment efforts, the survey found. Health care cost continues to grow by leaps and bounds... but just where is all this money going? How does so much of it just disappear into the system? Posted by TY at 10:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Salmon has fire retardant :(Yahoo! News - Traces of Fire Retardant Found in Salmon SEATTLE - Traces of industrial-strength fire retardant have turned up in wild and farm-raised salmon around the world, a study released Tuesday said. The research, published in the journal Environment Science and Technology, was the latest blow to the nutritious reputation of salmon, which is packed with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. A prior study by the same researchers recently found troubling levels of PCBs, a known carcinogen, in farm-raised salmon. Is anything safe these days? Posted by TY at 10:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Wow... what a TesterKenneth Spector - Coding without seeing the screen Kenneth is working as an intern here at Microsoft for the summer on the Office team as a tester. He uses Visual Studio to find bugs (and to code on his own time). He writes emails in Outlook. Does all the usual stuff that most developers or testers at Microsoft do. With one difference. Whoa. Click on the link to see the video! Posted by TY at 9:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Who would you want? I know!JS Online: Undecided women voters vital to Bush, Kerry camps Much has been made in recent campaigns of targeted demographics with catchy names such as "soccer moms" and "waitress moms" - that is, mothers with children, with the former financially better off - giving way to today's "security moms" who, above all else, want their families to be safe. "The Republicans are targeting them," said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, pointing to survey findings showing men were least concerned about a family member falling victim to a terrorist act, women were more concerned than men and mothers were most concerned of all. Mindy Tucker Fletcher, co-chair of the "W Stands for Women" national steering committee, asserted that the election can be boiled down to one question: "If September 11 happened again, who would you want sitting in the Oval Office?" Well if that's the question, then the next President of the United States of America should be none other than:
To quote one of my Republican friends, "Rudy Giuliani has more leadership skills in his pinky than Bush." (Oddly enough, the NYC Bio of Giuliani doesn't mention September 11th...)
Her answer: "George W. Bush is proven. He's tested. We know how he handles terrorist situations, and I think most people in America would want them handled the way he handled September 11." Hm. Here is a page that has some great photos of what George W. Bush was doing at that time. BTW, if you want to read "The Pet Goat" for yourself, check out this page. Is this what our children are reading these days? A book featuring car robbers?? Sheesh! Posted by TY at 9:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack A virtual tour of Bill Gate's Houseusnews.com: Technology: Bill Gates' House You are your own tour guide inside the Gates estate. Simply click on the active areas of the image or use the text links below to navigate. Neat! Thanks JWalk. Posted by TY at 12:52 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack The end of cheap oilMSNBC - Gas Guzzlers' Shock Therapy My fellow Americans, drop the fantasy that we'll return to cheap gasoline, and pump it for as long as our withered hands can steer an SUV. As the prophet saith, the end is nigh. Demand for oil is running highin fact, we're gobbling up the stuff. But world production grew by only 0.6 percent a year for the past five years. At some point, supplies will shrink, not grow. Maybe it's time to consume less... Posted by TY at 12:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack The Best Selling Car In America?Forbes.com: The Best-Selling Cars If Ford's F-Series pickup were to lose its position as America's best-selling vehicle, the effect would be similar to that of a World Series victory by the Boston Red Sox: the end of an era. Eventually we'll have more roads than anything else. Start a "Pave the Bay" campaign anyone? Posted by TY at 12:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Nausea inducing signBrian, a Walt Disney World Cast Member, reports: One of my friends was on the 'Test and Adjust' for Mission: Space. I was bugging him for insider info on it one day, and he told me that when it first opened for limited guest previews, they were strictly banned by the Imagineers from telling guests the ride spun.... and not a single person ever got sick! It was only after Disney Legal came in and said no, you have to tell people that it spins, that people started getting sick. Just like you said, and I tell everyone else this, the nausea's a self-induced effect. Its a bit of a double-bind for the lawyers in this case. I am no lawyer, but I could see myself making a case for explicit warnings if you put me in charge. The real culprit is that this ride just isnt like the "typical" Disney ride. That's funny. Posted by TY at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack An argument for grade inflationUSATODAY.com - Grade inflation works for today's students As a student at Johns Hopkins University in the mid-1950s, I found that grade-grubbing pre-meds wrecked many courses. In freshman psychology, they did so well on the multiple-choice tests that approximately 75% of the class scored above 90%. Rather than use the normal guideline that a 90 is an A-, the instructor created a curve so that a score between 90% and 95% would yield a C. Let me now say why grade inflation is good: First, the policy of most universities to allow drops fairly late in the semester has resulted in higher GPAs. My freshman class is called "boot camp" by my successful graduates. Students have to submit five papers during the semester at about two-week intervals. As they get their low grades back or fail to turn the papers in on time, they drop. Most universities permit late drops, which give students more flexibility in finding their interests and exploring their capabilities. This source of grade inflation is clearly a good thing. More important, I have found that students learn, on average, less than half of what they need to learn as undergraduates in formal course work. Therefore, higher grades give them some breathing room to undertake activities from which they can learn what is truly important. I disagree. College should be the worst 4 years of your life. Demoralizing you. Humiliating you. That way, you'll be eager to join the workforce and be ready for the real world. Nope. No bitterness here! Posted by TY at 12:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack A pretty interesting blogThis guy speaks his mind. Posted by TY at 12:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 9, 2004WinXP SP 2Download details: Windows XP Service Pack 2 for IT Professionals and Developers Install it everywhere! Posted by TY at 12:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Bottled water? bottled from where?MSNBC - Is your bottled water coming from a faucet? Is your bottled water coming from a faucet? As bottled water has gone mainstream and more competitive things are becoming murky. Truth is, there?s a good chance that fancy water you?ve just forked out a buck for comes from just the same place ? a municipal water supply. Good reference! Posted by TY at 2:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 8, 2004An example of why focus groups are badThe New York Times > Magazine > Consumed: Dirt Appeal Interestingly, Dyson's early focus groups suggested that the transparent waste bin was a bad idea, that no one wanted to look at a bucket of dirt. But the inventor disagreed. ''Even though the visuals were not so easy on the eye,'' the spokesperson explains, ''James felt that it would give people a certain sense of satisfaction after they had vacuumed.'' Yes. And, no doubt, a nagging sense that this feeling is fleeting, so they'd better vacuum again soon, just to be safe. Oh man... I totally want one of those Dyson Vacuum cleaners! Posted by TY at 7:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack All about cults - not what you think!http://www.plan-b.biz/pdf/How_Cults_Seduce.pdf A very interesting piece. It really makes you think about cults in a whole different way. They're not as "easy" to join as one might think. Very interesting. Posted by TY at 6:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Texas sized televisionIf this isn't enough Texas for you, satisfy your craving with Fat City, which will air immediately thereafter. Fat City, a made-for-Trio original, is a more successful, if less ambitious, documentary?at least it gives a better sense of what it's really like to be fat than Hitchens' documentary does of what it's like to be Texan. Narrated by Dallas legend (and real-life Fort Worthian) Larry Hagman, Fat City takes us on a tour of Houston, Texas, the town with the heaviest population in the United States for three years running. After ticking off the factors that have contributed to this dubious honor (the massive restaurant portions, the urban sprawl that makes walking impossible), the documentary focuses on the story lines of three different figures who reside in Houston's gastronomical landscape. Oh wow! I'd try the 32oz chicken fried steak challenge! Posted by TY at 6:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack Which phone to get?Sony Ericsson T616 Motorola MPx220 Sony Ericsson T637 Motorola RAZR V3 I'm thinking about buying a new phone later this year. Currently I have the T616... the above link compares some of the phones I'm thinking of. If only the MPx220 were thinner - it's really tough to put in your pocket. Posted by TY at 6:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Nothing ever changesYahoo! News - Blackout Fails to Give Power Reform a Jolt There is growing frustration among many power-industry officials and watchdogs that, one year after the country's biggest blackout, electric reliability rules are still voluntary. They worry that as the memory of that day fades, the momentum to improve the grid will, too. Oh well. Who needs reliable power anyway? Posted by TY at 5:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack A strange interview on FoxFOX's Your World sub host Varney obsessed with ... [Media Matters for America] FOX's Your World sub host Varney obsessed with 'Gay Days' In an exchange with Disney president Robert Iger on the August 5 edition of FOX News Channel's Your World w/ Neil Cavuto, substitute host Stuart Varney managed to transform a conversation about Disney's new children's Dream Desk computer into a derisive attack on "Gay Days," an annual gathering at Disney World organized by private groups. "You got any 'Gay Days' on the Mickey computer?" Varney asked Iger, adding, "You don't protect the kids from 'Gay Days' at the theme parks, do you?" Varney's criticism echoed attacks from right-wing groups on what they describe as Disney's "welcoming" of "Gay Days" participants, despite the fact that Disney plays no role in organizing or sponsoring the event. Weird! Posted by TY at 5:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Fark is sleazy :(Wired News: Fark Sells Out. France Surrenders Fark.com, one of the most popular blogs on the Net, has been accused of selling out -- joining a growing list of new-media outfits willing to bend old-media rules. According to a veteran new-media publisher, Fark has been selling preferential placement of story links without informing its readers. Doh! Posted by TY at 4:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 6, 2004Thought your day sucked?http://www.domeniul-tau.ro/car.mpeg Crossing the street can be dangerous. (Thanks for the find pSaiwing!) Posted by TY at 4:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack How to beat carnival games!WSJ.com - How to Beat the Dime Toss Below, some tips on how to beat some popular games: Posted by TY at 11:54 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack Funny comment of the daySo the Wall Street Journal.com had a poll today on whether its readers supported a flat tax or not... and for any comments about the idea. I love this comment: Your poll question is too simplistic. I would favor a flat tax, but with some exemptions in place now (such as mortgage interest, charitable donations, children, etc.). Err... that's exactly what a flat tax is supposed to eliminate. Posted by TY at 11:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack What am I listening to right now?Why... the Axel Foley song! Why do they keep playing 48 Hours on HBO??? :( UPDATE: Oh yeah... Axel Foley is from Beverly Hills Cop... oops Posted by TY at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack 41 SignsHere are 41 signs that you've become a savvy investor and a smart saver: Good to know! Oh nuts, I only scored an 18. How about you? Posted by TY at 12:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack Your company is making money from youMr. Eichensehr, food-service director at the cafeteria for Web company Inktomi, clicks his mouse on another choice, the Balinese Spiced Chicken. The Web site, run by business-dining king Aramark, shows the cost of the dish for its cafeterias is 85.1 cents a serving. Add an additional 13.8 cents for the jasmine rice, 4.8 cents for the tomato sambal and 12.1 cents for the bok choy side dish and total food costs come to $1.16, or just 21% of the $5.50 Mr. Eichensehr charges workers for the hot entree -- more than enough wiggle room for overhead. Interesting... if your companycan make a profit even at the $5.50 price point... just imagine what profits restaurants make!! Posted by TY at 12:24 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack $1 million isn't enoughWSJ.com - When $1 Million Isn't Enough For a Comfortable Retirement For many people who managed to build up $1 million, besides their home, $40,000 plus Social Security is not a lot. "Unfortunately, I think we're going to see a lot of people who think they have enough money outliving their portfolios," says Steve Henningsen, a financial adviser with high-net-worth money manager The Wealth Conservancy in Boulder, Colo. "People retiring today will have to live in a world of reduced expectations." Doh! I don't have a million or a house. Guess I'm not retiring next year. Posted by TY at 12:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Tortoises don't eat bags
Tortoises don't eat bags!! Posted by TY at 12:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack August 5, 2004Rock, Paper, SaddamFeaturing real shots of Saddam! Posted by TY at 11:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack Super Scary Ass Movie this SeptemberOh my... oh my... check out some of the trailers on this page. Be sure to check see the "Official Site" one. Very disturbing. SAW TRAILER AND MOVIE CLIPS (Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Leigh Whannell) - TheMovieBox.Net All the links from the IMDB entry on this say that you must see it. Will I be brave enough? Posted by TY at 11:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack New 3 Series Interior
Hm. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It doesn't look like the center console is angled towards the driver any more. Is it really flat (and, thus, cheaper)?? Posted by TY at 11:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack $100 a ticketGeneral Admission Tickets $100 in advance, $125 day of show. Ticket includes parking, shuttle, and an event program. Children 12 and under are admitted at no charge. Tickets will be mailed beginning the week of July 18, 2004. Tickets will be available on the day of show (Sunday, August 15th) for $125.<.blockquote> |
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A red-footed Falcon sits on a sign in Martha's Vineyard in this photo taken August 10, 2004. Until about two weeks ago the red-footed falcon, a bird of prey that breeds in eastern Europe and winters in the savannas of Africa, had never been seen in North America. But on August 8, 2004, Vernon Laux, an ornithologist on Martha's Vineyard, photographed what he thought was an exotic bird. Days later, Harvard University museum curatorial assistant Jeremiah Trimble identified the bird and, in the words of one local newspaper, 'turned the birding community in North America upside down.' (Reuters - Handout) 
