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It was bad enough that this jerk managed to blow an election he should have won. It was thoroughly embarrassing that he let Candy Crowley "punk" him in a nationally televised debate. All that should have been the end of Mitt Romney's appearances in our national life, but I wonder if what Mitt Romney fears most about Donald Trump might be that Trump will actually fight, get down in the muddy ditch with Hillary, and knock the Hell out of her, politically speaking, of course. Friday, he posted another anti-Trump screed on Facebook, and this time, he said that in Utah, he's going to be voting for Ted Cruz. He says he's not voting for Cruz for any reason but to cause a contested convention, but how is anybody going to take this clown seriously? If he were able to somehow rig the nomination of a candidate other than one of the two currently plausible nominees, I'm afraid many people would have radically strong reactions against the GOP. For instance, some of us might be inclined to exercise what I've termed "Trump's Nuclear Option." I know I would.
Nothing is more despicable than an establishment has-been leaping onto the stage as if he has some sort of credibility with the Republican rank-and-file voters. Here's the statement this jackass made on Facebook on Friday:
This week, in the Utah nominating caucus, I will vote for Senator Ted Cruz.
Today, there is a contest between Trumpism and Republicanism. Through the calculated statements of its leader, Trumpism has become associated with racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, vulgarity and, most recently, threats and violence. I am repulsed by each and every one of these.
The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention. At this stage, the only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible.
I like Governor John Kasich. I have campaigned with him. He has a solid record as governor. I would have voted for him in Ohio. But a vote for Governor Kasich in future contests makes it extremely likely that Trumpism would prevail.
I will vote for Senator Cruz and I encourage others to do so as well, so that we can have an open convention and nominate a Republican.
How very nice of this jerk! Why didn't he endorse Cruz? Why did he have to say such a thing? All this will do is to infuriate Republican voters, causing them to react in opposition to his foolish plotting. It's baffling that this man thinks he has even the slightest shred of credibility remaining with the Republican base.
My message in opposition to Mitt Romney's stupid, detestable, despicable statement is here:
In the coming weeks, the GOP will continue the process of permitting the voters to express their preference as to who should be the party's nominee for President.
Today, a past party nominee has decided to continue and further his attacks on the current putative "front-runner" for that nomination. I have compiled, therefore, a list of questions for the 2012 Republican nominee:
PresidentPrivate Citizen Romney, what makes you believe you have the moral authority to prescribe to any Republican the disposition of his or her vote? You've shown no ability whatever to obtain an electoral majority in the United States. On what basis do you now offer your advice to Republican voters, knowing you've been a colossal failure in your previous attempts to attain the highest office in the land? When Candy Crowley basically let her refusal to support your assertion stand as an accusation of lying on your part, why did you not respond? (Hint: this is likely the same reason you lost to Barack Obama.) Would you be willing to ride in a Vari-Kennel on the roof of my car? Do you think anybody actually cares if or how you answer any of the foregoing?
Mitt Romney, you are a worthless political has-been who retains no credibility among the broadest base of the Republican Party, the conservative movement, or almost anybody anywhere. Go away now. Shut up. Yes, you have free speech, but what you must learn is that because you can do a thing doesn't mean you should.
Four year later, Willard, you've learned nothing and you're still despicable.
In 2012, much against my preferences, and my own political leanings, I went to the polls in November and supported Mitt Romney as the nominee of the Republican Party. I did so knowing that Mitt Romney was in no way representative of my conservative views. I knew he had, while serving as governor of Massachusetts, implemented policies I found to be despicable in a free nation, particularly by a person elected as a Republican. Still, I dutifully did as millions of other voters summoned the discipline to do despite many, many misgivings about Mitt. I went to the polling place and select Romney for President, and with millions of others, knew he would go down to miserable defeat. He failed to make the arguments. He never really believed in conservatism, and still doesn't. My last question for Mr. Romney is one I think every Republican who voted for him in 2012 despite a myriad of disagreements with his record and his campaign should have every right to ask, and have answered:
We supported a nominee in the general who we had not supported in the primary, a man who had not been our first, second, or even third choice. We supported the Party's nominee. Having done this on behalf of the party, and as I am again prepared to do in the election this November despite serious misgivings over all of the candidates now campaigning, I now ask you sir: Why will you not support the nominee of the Republican party despite your misgivings, just as I set aside my more sincere and severe misgivings with you in 2012? Is party loyalty only good for the base, but irrelevant for the elites?
Mr. Romney would doubtless excuse himself with some tortured, indignant statement about the various failings of Trump, but what he would not do is to answer the question. He can't, because he's a despicable fraud, and it's one of the key reasons so many of us had so many thorough doubts about him four years ago. Go home Mitt. Go home and stay there.


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Meet a Veteran: Dominick Cortese, of Norwich
Life in the service: Retired U.S. Army Maj. Dominick S. Cortese joined the Air Force as a 19-year-old during the height of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s. As a munitions specialist, he soon found himself loading nuclear weapons into planes at the Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Mass. Within a few months, Cortese, 64, was in Thailand attached to the 307th Strategic Wing, where his crew loaded five B-52s every day with between 84 and 108 bombs. After spending almost 2 ½ years in the Air Force, Cortese went home to South Windsor. In 1974, he attended officer training school through the U.S. Army Reserve and was soon called up as a sergeant. That launched a 16-year career with the 76th Training Division that brought him to Norwich's Army National Guard complex. He rose through the ranks there, serving as company commander, adjutant and supply officer before being moved to Rhode Island, where he performed evaluations of infantry units. He retired from the military in 1993.
Life after service: Cortese worked for a short time for Thames Valley Council for Community Action. Much of his post-military life has been spent volunteering for various veterans organizations, though he was slow to join them. It wasn't until the mid-1990s, when he became active with the Norwich chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, that he started participating. He's a former Norwich commander of the organization, and is currently third junior vice president for the state chapter. Cortese, who belongs to the Richard E. Hourigan Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 594 in Norwich, is a former senior vice commander there, as well. He's also service officer for District 4 of the state VFW. Cortese has bachelor's and master's degrees from Eastern Connecticut State University.
Quotable: On his service: "As a crew chief, I was responsible for loading five B-52s a day. You got one day off a week and one two-day break a month." On his VFW involvement: "When I came back from the war, I couldn't care less about VFWs and places like that. Who wanted to hang out with a bunch of old World War II guys? But little by little, I became more active. If you join an organization and you have talents and don't utilize them, you're at fault, because people are going to recognize that talent and look to you for leadership."

subset: commoncrawl


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Much of my writing is focused on the real-world impact of government policy, and this is why I repeatedly look at the relative economic performance of big government jurisdictions and small government jurisdictions.
But I don't just highlight differences between nations. Yes, it's educational to look at North Korea vs. South Korea or Chile vs. Venezuela vs. Argentina, but I also think you can learn a lot by looking at what's happening with different states in America.
So we've looked at high-tax states that are languishing, such as California and Illinois, and compared them to zero-income-tax states such as Texas.
With this in mind, you can understand that I was intrigued to see that even the establishment media is noticing that Texas is out-pacing the rest of the nation.
Here are some excerpts from a report by CNN Money on rapid population growth in Texas.
More Americans moved to Texas in recent years than any other state: A net gain of more than 387,000 in the latest Census for 2013. …Five Texas cities — Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth — were among the top 20 fastest growing large metro areas. Some smaller Texas metro areas grew even faster. In oil-rich Odessa, the population grew 3.3% and nearby Midland recorded a 3% gain.
But why is the population growing?
Well, CNN Money points out that low housing prices and jobs are big reasons.
And on the issue of housing, the article does acknowledge the role of "easy regulations" that enable new home construction.
But on the topic of jobs, the piece contains some good data on employment growth, but no mention of policy.
Jobs is the No. 1 reason for population moves, with affordable housing a close second. …Jobs are plentiful in Austin, where the unemployment rate is just 4.6%. Moody's Analytics projects job growth to average 4% a year through 2015. Just as important, many jobs there are well paid: The median income of more than $75,000 is nearly 20% higher than the national median.
That's it. Read the entire article if you don't believe me, but the reporter was able to write a complete article about the booming economy in Texas without mentioning – not even once – that there's no state income tax.
But that wasn't the only omission.
The article doesn't mention that Texas is the 4th-best state in the Tax Foundation's ranking of state and local tax burdens.
The article doesn't mention that Texas was the least oppressive state in the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Soft Tyranny Index.
The article doesn't mention that Texas was ranked #20 in a study of the overall fiscal condition of the 50 states.
The article doesn't mention that Texas is in 4th place in a combined ranking of economic freedom in U.S. state and Canadian provinces.
The article doesn't mention that Texas was ranked #11 in the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index.
The article doesn't mention that Texas is in 14th place in the Mercatus ranking of overall freedom for the 50 states (and in 10th place for fiscal freedom).
By the way, I'm not trying to argue that Texas is the best state.
Indeed, it only got the top ranking in one of the measures cited above.
My point, instead, is simply to note that it takes willful blindness to write about the strong population growth and job performance of Texas without making at least a passing reference to the fact that it is a low-tax, pro-market state.
At least compared to other states. And especially compared to the high-tax states that are stagnating.
Such as California, as illustrated by this data and this data, as well as this Lisa Benson cartoon.
Such as Illinois, as illustrated by this data and this Eric Allie cartoon.
And I can't resist adding this Steve Breen cartoon, if for no other reason that it reminds me of another one of his cartoons that I shared last year.
Speaking of humor, this Chuck Asay cartoon speculates on how future archaeologists will view California. And this joke about Texas, California, and a coyote is among my most-viewed blog posts.
All jokes aside, I want to reiterate what I wrote above. Texas is far from perfect. There's too much government in the Lone Star state. It's only a success story when compared to California.
P.S. Paul Krugman has tried to defend California, which has made him an easy target. I debunked him earlier this year, and I also linked to a superb Kevin Williamson takedown of Krugman at the bottom of this post.
P.P.S. Once again, I repeat the two-part challenge I've issued to the left. I'll be happy if any statists can successfully respond to just one of the two questions I posed.


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Long Term Care / Medicaid Seminars
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BUT, there is help available.
Attend one of our Medicaid seminars and learn how to avoid losing everything to the cost of nursing and assisted living care.
Below are the dates, times and locations of our live seminars. Seating at these events is limited so be sure to call and reserve your spot. (813) 877-9222.
- This event has passed.
Long Term Care / Medicaid Seminar
April 25, 2018 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location: Carrollwood Cultural Center
Call (813) 877-9222 to reserve your seat


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We have been busy bees recently. I put some of our wedding present vouchers to very good use and invested in a beautiful Candy Apple Kitchenaid Mixer. I have christened her Joni and she has already proven her weight in gold.
My 30th birthday was approaching fast and wanting to mark the occasion my friend Jill (who's birthday just so happens to be the day before mine!) and I decided to have a little soiree at our local pub. Cupcakes seemed to be a good option for a gathering, so we didn't have to worry about plates, knives and such like. It also meant that we could go a bit mad with the flavour combinations too.
The week before our birthdays, Jill and I spent a merry evening baking everything in sight. Modifying Hummingbird Bakery recipes to our hearts content. It's amazing what can be achieved in 3 hours by two 29 year old girls, armed with a Kitchenaid and a bottle of prosecco. We got very creative indeed.
We baked well over 100 cakes and still made it to the pub afterwards to meet our husbands. I must admit we sampled rather a few along the way so not all of the cakes made it into our freezers to await their icing. It's hard to resist when you've got cupcakes hot out of the oven dancing in front of your eyes.
The following week we defrosted our cupcakes and spent an entire day icing the lot, with lashings of buttercream, glitter and ganache. The results were very well received by our friends and the bar staff! The Jasmine green tea cupcakes were a surprise success after I accidentally emptied the entire bottle of Jasmine Extract into the cupcake batter… They are the most fragrant cupcakes I've ever created. Perhaps an acquired taste for some and definitely an excellent air freshener accessory.
Happy birthday to us! What a wonderful start to the new decade!
The Creative Cupcake Modification Method
I'm not entirely sure if this is the scientific way to create your own recipes but it seems to work for me. My basic understanding of creative baking is to find a recipe that works for you then add and subtract from it. Experiment to the extreme! My general guidelines are
- Don't alter the specified oven temperature (unless you have to because you're using a fan/non fan oven) cupcakes bake at around 170-180 degrees Celsius and should take about 20 minutes depending on the size of your cases
- Maintain the combination of wet to dry ingredients
- Use whatever is in your cupboards
- Feel free to double the quantities if you need to bake lots but be prepared to bake them in stages
- Naked cupcakes freeze really well and can keep for a month. Freeze them as soon as they're cooled in freezer bags/Tupperware and this holds all of the moisture in sponge. Leaving you with a wonderfully moist cupcake when you choose to ice it later on.
- You normally need more buttercream than you think so again feel free to make a double batch!
- The more you beat buttercream the better it is.
- Feel free to experiment with shapes if you have a Madeleine tin, Gugelhupf or mini bunt tin they work really well too
- A squiggle of melted chocolate works wonders if you can't be bothed to whip up buttercream to top your cakes and a sprinkle of coconut and glitter hides a multitude of sins
The Basic Cupcake Recipe
Makes 12-16 cupcakes (using cupcake not muffin sized cases)
For the sponge:
Rub together (using an electric whisk if you have one) the sugar, butter, flour salt and baking powder. When it all looks quite sandy beat in the wet ingredients including your choice of flavouring!
Then pour the smooth liquid batter into prepared cupcake cases in a muffin tin.
Bake for 20-25 minutes in the centre of the oven at 170 degrees celsius until golden brown and springs back when pressed. To be extra certain they're cooked insert a cocktail stick and if it comes out clean it's definitely done.
The Basic Cupcake Sponge Ingredients
- 120g (4½oz) plain flour
- 140g (5oz/) caster sugar
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- 40g (1½oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 120ml (4½floz) milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
Cupcake Roulette!
Choose from an array of flavour combinations such as
Green Tea
- 3 Jasmine Green Tea bags steeped in 3tbsp just-boiled water (reduce the amount of milk by 3
- Replace 30 ml of milk with jasmine extract
- 1 vanilla pod
- Replace caster sugar with vanilla flavoured sugar (if you have pre-prepared some but if not don't worry!)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Replace 40ml of milk with amaretto
- You can also add almond extract for extra oomph
Amaretto Sour
- Replace 40ml of milk with amaretto
- Add 1 tsp lemon extract
- Add zest of one lemon
- Replace 25g of flour with desiccated coconut
- Use coconut milk instead of normal milk
- Replace 20g of flour with cocoa powder
- Steep the milk in 1 tbs of dried lavender flowers overnight
- Infuse the sugar with 2tbs of dried lavender flowers for a week
- Sieve the lavender petals out of the sugar and milk before use
- Blitz 1 tsp of lavender into the sugar before use
- same as lavender but using dried rose petals
- Replace 1 tbs of milk with rose water
Piña Colada
- Replace 40ml of milk with Malibu
- Replace 25 g of flour with desiccated coconut
- Use coconut milk instead of milk
- (soak cupcakes in rum syrup whilst still warm)
Chocolate Brandy
- Replace 40ml of milk with brandy
- Replace 20g flour with cocoa powder
- Use orange extract instead of vanilla
- Add orange zest
The possibilities are endless! Create your own flavour combinations!!
You could choose your own favourite liquor, (Gin?) cordial (sasparilla, blackcurrant), extract (Orange Blossom, violet), and just follow this idea. I'm very tempted to create some Brandy Alexander cocktail cupcakes very soon…
Then to choose your topping to enhance your flavour combination even further…
The Basic Buttercream Recipe
Depending on your style of icing you may want to double the quantities of buttercream. Piping swirls and roses uses a lot more icing than creating a palette knife swirl.
- 25 ml milk
- 250g icing sugar
- 80g unsalted butter, softened
Icing Flavour Options
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Amaretto Sour
- Replace 25 ml milk with amaretto
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- Zest of 1 lemon
- use coconut milk
- Use 1 tsp peppermint extract
The General Buttercream Guidelines
You can see here the rules are simple. Add whatever flavour extracts you like. Substitute milk for liquid or boozy flavourings. Zests are good to add as they are dry so won't effect the consistency of the buttercream. If your icing is looking a bit sloppy beat in some more icing sugar and return it to the fridge to set a bit if it's too runny.
Use a piping bag and star shaped nozzle to pipe swirls, Mr Whippy peaks, stars or roses onto your cupcakes. Or use a palette knife to smooth a swirl of buttercream onto your cakes.
If you would like extra moist cakes you can add a syrup to the sponge whilst it's still warm.
Tropical White Rum Syrup
- 200ml white rum
- 60g sugar
Warm the sugar and rum in a pan over a low heat. Simmer it until it's reduced by half in volume. Once cooled pour over your cakes. Allow it to soak in before icing your cakes. Feel free to use other flavours too! Lemon juice, rose water, cordial etc make a really good syrup!
Using a cocktail stick add a couple of drops of your food colour gel of choice and beat until its fully incorporated. You can always add more if needed.
If you want to swirl 2 colours together, split your buttercream in half. Colour each half whatever you fancy. Pipe one colour buttercream down one side of a piping bag and then pipe the different colour down the other side of the bag. You will then get a lovely swirl of colours on you cupcakes when piping the two colours simultaneously from the same bag!
Chocolate Ganache
- Heat up 300ml of double cream to just about boiling
- Take it off the heat
- Smash up equal amount of dark plain chocolate 300g
- Stir the chocolate into the hot cream until completely smooth
- Spoon a generous blob onto cupcakes and let gravity do the work to create a smooth level shiny ganache top
You could use white chocolate if you add more white chocolate to the mix as it contains less cocoa solids so it won't set until there's more chocolate than cream in the mixture.
- 150ml double cream
- 250ml white chocolate
Arm yourself with a selection of…
- Sprinkles
- Glitter
- Desiccated coconut
- Chocolate shavings
- Hand made chocolate swirls (melt chocolate squiggle it onto some grease proof paper allow it to cool and hey presto fancy looking chocolate bits)
- Lustre powders
- Popping candy
- Pearls
- Cupcake wrappers (if you have some)
And go wild!
Cupcake Combinations That Work Well
- Chocolate sponge and peppermint buttercream
- Jasmine green tea sponge and vanilla buttercream
- Chocolate sponge and chocolate ganache
- Amaretto sour sponge and amaretto sour buttercream
- Piña colada sponge and coconut buttercream
- Amaretto sponge and coconut buttercream


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I just watched my youngest son almost get into an accident. It is an overcast, rainy afternoon and Carl was driving behind me. I glanced in the rearview mirror to check on him and, to my horror, he was no longer on the road. Carl hydroplaned while pulling out onto the street and lost control of the car. When I saw him, he was on the sidewalk on the far side of the road about to hit a pole. He swerved out of the way which threw him back into the street. For the longest half minute of my life, I watched Carl try to right the car as he jerkily swerved back and forth from one lane to the other. There was traffic both ways and I thought, "My baby is going to die." I heard myself screaming, "Caaaaarl!"
My hands are still shaking as I type this. I apologize for the drama of this post, but I wanted to write while the feelings are still fresh. Thankfully, all traffic was able to move off the road to avoid hitting Carl. Thankfully, he was able to finally gain control and pull over into a parking lot. I have never felt more helpless than I did as I watched my "baby" fight for his life.
So now I'm overwhelmed with fear. I never ever, never ever (NEVER) want Carl to drive again. How am I supposed to keep from replaying that scene in my mind the next time he gets behind the wheel?
Somehow my guys aren't nearly as shaken up. I drove straight to Neal's office and sobbed on his shoulder. I said, "Carl could've been killed!" Neal said, "But he wasn't." I told Carl I had just finished praying for God to keep him safe when I saw him lose control of the car. He said, "And He did." While I was shaking from head to toe and imagining what could have happened, Carl said, "I'm glad Dad's car is okay!"
The truth of the matter is that it was probably a good thing ultimately. Carl just gained some valuable experience with driving, rain, hydroplaning, and overcorrecting. He'll be better prepared if he's ever in that kind of situation again. My mind knows that but my heart is protesting.
Honestly, this has been the hardest part of parenting for me. Losing control. My sons are grown and nearly grown. I'm watching them make decisions, make mistakes, sin, or flounder around as they try to figure out their own lives. What I want to do is have complete control again. They could get hurt! But I know they're growing and gaining valuable experience. I know that they are capable and good. I also know that while they will never stop being my sons, they really belong to their heavenly Father. And He is always in perfect control.
"I know that You can do everything,
and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You" (Job 42:2).


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- 1 Vehicle Matching
Prices exclude government fees and taxes, any finance charges, any dealer document processing charge, any electronic filing charge and any emission testing charge.Pricing does not include services such as LoJack, which may be pre-installed on this vehicle and can be activated for an additional price. Inventory may change with recent sales and leases. Mileage may change due to test drives. Please call or visit us for more detail.
We're sorry, availability of some equipment, options or features may be limited due to global supply issues affecting the auto industry. Please be sure to verify that the vehicle you purchase includes all expected features and equipment.


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By Andrew M. Seaman
Mindfulness meditation may be useful in battles against anxiety, depression and pain, according to a fresh look at past research.
Using data from 47 earlier studies, researchers found moderate evidence to support the use of mindfulness meditation to treat those conditions. Meditation didn't seem to affect mood, sleep or substance use.
"Many people have the idea that meditation means just sitting quietly and doing nothing," wrote Dr. Madhav Goyal in an email to Reuters Health. "That is not true. It is an active training of the mind to increase awareness, and different meditation programs approach this in different ways."
Goyal led the study at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
He and his colleagues write in JAMA Internal Medicine that meditation techniques emphasize mindfulness and concentration.
So-called mindfulness meditation is aimed at allowing the mind to pay attention to whatever thoughts enter it, such as sounds in the environment, without becoming too focused. Mantra meditation, on the other hand, involves focusing concentration on a particular word or sound.
Approximately 9 percent of people in the U.S. reported meditating in 2007, according to the National Institutes of Health. About 1 percent said they use meditation as some sort of treatment or medicine.
For the new report, the researchers searched several electronic databases that catalog medical research for trials that randomly assigned people with a certain condition – such as anxiety, pain or depression – to do meditation or another activity. These randomized controlled trials are considered the gold standard of medical research.
The researchers found 47 studies with over 3,500 participants that met their criteria.
After combining the data, Goyal said his team found between a 5 and 10 percent improvement in anxiety symptoms among people who took part in mindfulness meditation, compared to those who did another activity.
There was also about a 10 to 20 percent improvement in symptoms of depression among those who practiced mindfulness meditation, compared to the other group.
"This is similar to the effects that other studies have found for the use of antidepressants in similar populations," Goyal said.
Mindfulness meditation was also tied to reduced pain. But Goyal said it's hard to know what kind of pain may be most affected by meditation.
The benefits of meditation didn't surpass what is typically associated with other treatments, such as drugs and exercise, for those conditions.
"As with many therapies, we try to get a moderate level of confidence that the therapy works before we prescribe it," Goyal said. "If we have a high level of confidence, it is much better."
But he noted that the researchers didn't find anything more than moderate evidence of benefit from meditation for anxiety, depression and pain.
There was some suggestion that meditation may help improve stress and overall mental health, but the evidence supporting those findings was of low quality.
There was no clear evidence that meditation could influence positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep or weight.
"Clinicians should be prepared to talk with their patients about the role that meditation programs could have in addressing psychological stress, particularly when symptoms are mild," Goyal said.
Dr. Allan Goroll, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new study, told Reuters Health the analysis is an example of an area of much-needed scientific study, because many people make treatment decisions based on beliefs – not data.
"That is particularly the case with alternative and complimentary approaches to treating medical problems," he said. "It ranges from taking vitamins to undergoing particular procedures for which the scientific evidence is very slim but people's beliefs are very great."
Goroll is professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Goyal said people should remember that meditation was not conceived to treat any particular health problem.
"Rather, it is a path we travel on to increase our awareness and gain insight into our lives," he wrote. "The best reason to meditate is to gain this insight. Improvements in health conditions are really a side benefit, and it's best to think of them that way."
SOURCE: bit.ly/WiwDtv JAMA Internal Medicine, online January 6, 2014.


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'Do Your Best' in The Tangle of Global Business
I spoke recently to a corporate audience on the topic of Ethics for Leaders. One of the sub-topics I touched on was the fact that leaders need not only to make good ethical decisions, but also to help others make good ethical decisions. As a practical example, we looked at techniques a leader might use to help someone else understand what is ethically problematic about bribery. Sure, someone in a leadership position might have the authority simply to give orders; but in many cases it will be much more effective to explain the values and principles that underlie a particular prohibition.
One of the attendees at this session pushed back in a useful way. "I get the ethical argument against bribery, and I agree. But I've talked to Sales Managers overseas who say it's just not realistic to avoid everything that could be construed as a bribe. How do I deal with that, beyond simply pointing to the FCPA?"
This is a tough challenge, one that needs to be taken seriously. Whether it's bribery or nepotistic hiring practices, local practices that violate the rules of business "back home" can seem hard to avoid. Business is a competitive game, and it sometimes really is the case that scrupulously following the written rules puts a company at a significant — maybe even definitive — disadvantage.
It's far too easy to play Monday Morning Quarterback and to speak in idealistic terms about integrity in business. But ethics isn't about being a saint; it's about finding a way to do your best to find suitable limits on profit-seeking behaviours when those behaviours put other people's legitimate interests and rights at risk. So, if we are to avoid sounding preachy, what can we say about the Sales Manager above?
First, make sure the "when in Rome" argument isn't just being used as a fig leaf to cover up what is really an appeal to convenience. Sometimes it may be easier to follow local custom, but that's not quite the same as necessity.
Second, if — if! — it really is necessary, when doing business overseas, to engage in practices that wouldn't be allowed back home, are you at least doing what you can to a) minimize the frequency of such violations and b) working, in at least some small way, to improve standards in the local business community? Bribery and other forms of corruption are truly corrosive, and economies in which they are common would be much better off without them. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
Third, ask whether unscrupulous (or merely 'grey zone') behaviour is being used to cover up poor performance. It may be that the Sales Manager who feels the need to offer bribes simply isn't very good at his job and is looking for ways to succeed without having sufficient talent or making sufficient effort. Sometimes lack of ethics suggests lack of competency.
And finally, ask what your company can do to change incentives such that a Sales Manager isn't so single-mindedly driven by numbers that he feels compelled to bend or break the rules. No one within an organization should ever think of themselves as having just a single objective. Yes, a Sales Manager is in charge of Sales. But he also has responsibilities that include risk management (including avoiding bringing the company into shame or into court) and managing morale within the sales team. People will behave according to how you reward them, and so reward mechanisms ought to be as balanced as you would like their performance to be.
The challenges posed by doing business in the global marketplace are never easy. Only by avoiding both naïveté and cynicism can you hope to do good while still doing well.


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MURRAY HILL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--C. R. Bard, Inc. (NYSE: BCR) today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Medivance, Inc. for a purchase price of approximately $250 million. The transaction will be structured as a merger subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions, including Hart-Scott-Rodino clearance. Upon completion of the merger, the Medivance organization will become part of Bard Medical division.
Medivance, located in Louisville, Colorado, is the market leader in the field of therapeutic hypothermia. In recent years, accurate manipulation of body temperature to targeted levels has emerged as an effective treatment option for a variety of critically ill patients. The American Heart Association, The American Stroke Association, The Brain Trauma Foundation and various international medical associations have issued therapeutic hypothermia guidelines as the clinical data supporting Targeted Temperature Management™ has grown. Medivance's Arctic Sun® family of products provides clinicians with a powerful technology to effectively manage patient temperature in a non-invasive manner.
Timothy M. Ring, chairman and CEO, commented, "With their unique and proprietary technology, Medivance is the market leader in an emerging and growing space. This merger is a great strategic fit for Bard as Medivance's Targeted Temperature Management™ product line is synergistic with our critical care sales call point, and their technology efficiently addresses a large unmet need in a market that is growing double digits. This acquisition represents an important building block for our critical care product offering."
Based on the anticipated completion of the merger in the fourth quarter of 2011, Bard expects the dilution impact to be immaterial to earnings per share in 2011.
C. R. Bard, Inc. (www.crbard.com), headquartered in Murray Hill, NJ, is a leading multinational developer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative, life-enhancing medical technologies in the fields of vascular, urology, oncology and surgical specialty products.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are based on management's current expectations, the accuracy of which is necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements are not historical in nature and use words such as "anticipate", "estimate", "expect", "project", "intend", "forecast", "plan", "believe", and other words of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. Many factors may cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results including product developments, sales efforts, income tax matters, the outcomes of contingencies such as legal proceedings, and other economic, business, competitive and regulatory factors. The company undertakes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements. Please refer to the Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information in our June 30, 2011 Form 10-Q for more detailed information about these and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.


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My Regarding Humanity co-founder Lina and I have been talking about the effectiveness of "hashtag activism" for a long time now, and every week there is something new to say or learn from. We took the plunge and published where our thinking is this week – though it's sure to change by next week. (Thanks to Alex Lee and Winter Schneider for their research and writing support!)
I'm still grappling with whether hashtag activism and "slacktivism" in general are more important for changing perceptions and behaviors of the individuals who participate in them (which is where many marketers and social media guru types look for impact), or if they should be measured based on their effectiveness in terms of resolving the problem that the hashtag is aimed at addressing. I'm guessing if a hashtag does both, that's when it's really found the sweet spot. I'm also thinking that in order for it to do both, it probably needs to involve the people who are directly impacted by the issue and/or people who can actually do something about the issue (these could be one and the same in some cases).
Some say that small acts of online activism (and slacktivism) open the door to a greater feeling of individual agency, which then increases political engagement and more meaningful/more active social cause participation in the future. But I wonder if this is true when the social cause is one that does not directly touch upon the life of the person participating. Does engaging in serial online hashtagging along the lines of #bringbackourgirls make an individual more prone to taking on meaningful action at some point? Or does the hashtag engagement need to relate to something more locally addressable (eg., something the individual could directly impact) in order for it to lead to meaningful action? As we note in our article, some research has found that when it comes to global causes, people have very short attention spans and they move on to a new topic once the complexity of the situation is apparent and they understand their individual inability to make any real difference.
I'm curious about how having "skin in the game" impacts on a person's feeling of agency and on the impact of hashtag activism at both the personal level and at the level of wider social and political change. I wrote something about this a few years ago (Activism vs Slacktivism: It's about context not tools), and I wonder whether spontaneous hashtags that spring up and help create critical consciousness and form movements and build cohesion within them (a la #iftheygunnedmedown or #myNYPD) are more effective than those created by marketers/advocates with particular engagement goals in mind.
And anyway, what do I mean by "effective?" I suppose it's all relevant and that, like any tool, a hashtag can be used for ton of different things and maybe I'm comparing apples and oranges here. There will be different measures of success with different hashtags – some for branding, some for fundraising and some for deeper social change and political engagement. Maybe my thoughts and feelings about hashtag activism are just reflecting my wider viewpoints on the kinds of change that I find valuable, and those usually doesn't have much to do with building an organization's brand…
And in the end, why do I spend time debating the value of hashtags!? Surely that's a kind of slacktivism in its own right.
Oh, hashtags.


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NASHVILLE - Gov. Bill Haslam says he expects to have about $369 million in new revenues for his proposed 2013-14 budget, but expected cost increases in TennCare will swallow most of the money.
That will put pressure on him and lawmakers to look at cuts elsewhere to pay for increases in key areas ranging from education to prisons, the Republican governor warned last week.
Of the expected new revenue, $350 million -- or 95 percent -- is going to TennCare -- the Republican said.
"You can't do anything [else]. I mean, you can't do anything in higher education. You can't give anybody a raise. ... It's literally sucking up all the money in state government, and we have to have a different approach to health care."
Earlier this year, Haslam directed agency chiefs to prepare for cuts of up to 5 percent.
Department budgets have been cut repeatedly since the Great Recession struck in 2008 and the mild recovery that so far has followed.
House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, a former House Finance Committee chairman, is skeptical of the governor's estimates.
"To say we have $369 million in new revenues before the State Funding Board meets, that's kind of hard to figure," Fitzhugh said.
The funding board, which sets ranges for revenue growth estimates, will meet this week. Haslam spokesman David Smith said $369 million is the funding board's preliminary estimate.
Fitzhugh said Republican officials earlier this year refused to acknowledge much-larger-than-anticipated revenue increases for the 2012 fiscal year that ended June 30.
And so far this year, revenues were already $72.9 million higher than projected in the $31.5 billion state budget.
"I think it's a bit premature to say how much we got there and that 95 percent of it is going to be consumed by TennCare," Fitzhugh said.
More health care costs
TennCare and associated state programs do face higher costs because of health care inflation and other needs as well as the anticipated impacts of the federal Affordable Care Act, according to the TennCare Bureau.
Increases in TennCare and the state's Cover Kids program for low-income children will require about $164.81 million in new spending, according to figures TennCare Director Darin Gordon gave Haslam in October.
The federal health care reform law will impose two other increases even if Tennessee doesn't agree to expand TennCare to more low-income residents.
The program now covers about 1.2 million people. It and related programs cost about $9.27 billion, with the state paying $2.93 billion and the federal government picking up the rest. TennCare accounts for about 96 percent of spending by the state's Health Care and Finance Administration, according to state figures.
Under federal health care reform, TennCare is expected to enroll 47,000 to 60,000 people in 2014 who already are eligible for the program, Gordon said.
That's because of the federal law's individual mandate, which requires everyone to have health insurance. Everyone seeking insurance through the federally subsidized health insurance exchanges established under the law "must be checked" for Medicaid eligibility before they may buy from the exchange, Gordon told Haslam in October.
Others who are Medicaid-eligible will join TennCare because of "increased outreach efforts," he added. Those people will cost the state an estimated $56.5 million in the second half of the 2014 fiscal year, Gordon said.
The federal law also levies an excise tax on insurers nationwide. While Tennessee hoped companies involved in TennCare would be spared, they won't, Gordon said. That's expected to cost the state another $55.9 million, he said.
Add in regular cost increases and the state is looking at an added $277.21 million, according to a document on TennCare's website.
It's a big figure, but it's still about $72.8 million less than the $350 million figure cited by Haslam last week. It's about 75 percent of the $369 million in new revenue.
Efforts to clarify the discrepancy between TennCare's budget presentation and Haslam's figures were unsuccessful Friday and Saturday.
Other needs
Other areas in state government also are looking for more money.
Public colleges and universities are seeking $33.5 million in new state funds to partially offset tuition hikes. K-12 officials are seeking $45 million more because of enrollment growth and cost increases.
The Department of Children's Services is asking for more than $8 million to hire new staff and other improvements at an agency engulfed in controversy over children's deaths. The state is going to have to cough up an additional $20 million in the current budget to offset unexpected increases for housing state felons in local jails.
Haslam also has cited increased costs for state employees' health insurance, although no figures were provided. And increasing pay for state employees can be costly. This year's 2.5 percent increase cost an estimated $36 million. The governor has alluded to another increase in the upcoming budget he presents to state lawmakers early next year.


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Tennis: Djokovic, Jankovic win at Indian Wells
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Facing an opponent he had never seen play, Novak Djokovic relied on some old-fashioned word of mouth.
Asking around the locker room and getting some intel from his coach, Djokovic went out and beat Alejandro Gonzalez 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 on Tuesday, ending the Colombian's surprising run to the third round at the BNP Paribas Open.
"It took me a little bit to get used to it," Djokovic said. "You've got new faces and new players who are able to challenge the top guys, and this is good for the sport. It also makes us work harder and improve trying to get our game to a high level because the guys are coming up."
Djokovic, a two-time champion at Indian Wells, earned the only two breaks of the third set, including a seven-deuce game that he closed out with a clever backhand drop volley.
John Isner, the lone American remaining in the men's draw, defeated Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-4, 6-3 to reach the fourth round. Isner fired 13 aces, hit 32 winners and gained the only two breaks of the match. Lu managed just nine winners and never had a break point against Isner.
Top-seeded Li Na played Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada in a late match.
Gonzalez had never won an ATP Tour match in six tries before Indian Wells. He won third-set tiebreakers in his first two matches here before keeping the world's second-ranked man on the court for just over 1½ hours.
"I just had a big loss of concentration and allowed him to win the second set for no reason," Djokovic said. "Bounced back better in the third, but I obviously cannot allow myself to have these particular concentration lapses in the match at this level."
Djokovic had 28 winners to 11 for Gonzalez, who also had 23 unforced errors in his first Masters 1000 event.
Djokovic next plays 24th-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, who beat 16th-seeded Tommy Robredo 6-4, 6-3. The Serb is the highest remaining seed left after top-seeded Rafael Nadal was upset by Alexandr Dolgopolov a day earlier.
Jelena Jankovic routed Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals in a matchup of former tournament champions and No. 1-ranked players.
Jankovic next plays second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat 22nd-seeded Alize Cornet 7-5, 6-3.
Jankovic made the quarterfinals for the first time since winning the Indian Wells title in 2010, when she beat Wozniacki. The Dane won the title in 2011 and lost to Maria Sharapova in last year's final.
But she offered little resistance against Jankovic, who raced to a 5-0 lead in the second set before Wozniacki held at 40-love to avoid getting shut out in front of her fiance, golfer Rory McIlroy.
"I kind of found my way, found my rhythm, and I was striking the ball very well out there and took control of the points," Jankovic said. "I just did not let her play what she plays. That was very important."
Jankovic was the world's top-ranked player in 2008. Wozniacki reached the top spot in 2010; she's now No. 12. Jankovic, who is ranked eighth, was the first top-10 player Wozniacki has faced so far this year.
Jankovic ended a five-match skid against Wozniacki, with the Serb having recovered from a back problem that occurred in her match two nights earlier. Jankovic didn't hit on Monday and felt too stiff to put her shoes on.
"I went on court today not knowing how I was going to feel, if I was going to be limited with my movement or if I was going to play my game," she said. "But I did and I was surprised."
Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi failed to build on her upset of defending champion Maria Sharapova, losing to countrywoman Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-1.
American Lauren Davis withdrew from her match against qualifier Casey Dellacqua of Australia because of a gastrointestinal illness. Dellacqua advanced to the quarters against No. 6 seed Simona Halep of Romania, who beat Eugenie Bouchard of Canada, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
In other men's matches, 30th-seeded Fernando Verdasco beat No. 8 seed Richard Gasquet, 7-6 (5), 6-1; and Roberto Bautista Agut beat Jarkko Nieminen, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (6).


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Tribute Bands
Four groups honor famous music acts — and develop a following of their own.
America's live music scene is cacophonous with hundreds, maybe thousands, of tribute bands. On any given Saturday night, roadhouses, bars, nightclubs and concert halls echo with fervent recreations of bands ranging from the beloved to the notorious. They often carry names pregnant with insider significance to hardcore fans: The Rolling Stones tribute band Voodoo Tongue combines the Stones' album Voodoo Lounge with the group's glottic logo … The 4 Horsemen are instantly associated with the name of a classic Metallica song … and Another Brick borrows a snippet of lyric from Pink Floyd's The Wall. Here are four of the best: Bands that, in honoring the essence of their heroes, create a work of performance art that is also uniquely their own.
Rain: The Gold Standard
Unless your name is Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr, there's no way to even imagine being a Beatle. But on this particular overcast afternoon, on this open-air stage in the middle of Times Square and before some 40,000 singing, swaying, joyous onlookers, the guys who make up the Beatles tribute band Rain are coming as close as anyone.
"Hey, Jude … " begins McCartney double Joey Curatolo. And as he heads into the familiar piano riff that drives beneath the song's opening verse, a roar can be heard from as far as 46th Street.
Beat for backbeat, note for grace note, Rain has been honing its Beatlecraft for decades, ever since the group first emerged as a southern California bar band. Curatolo, Joe Bithorn (George Harrison), and Ralph Castelli (Ringo Starr) have been playing Beatles tunes together since the mid 1980s; Steve Landes (John Lennon) has been with them since 1998, and their musical director Mark Lewis — let's just call him the Fifth Beatle — is the guy who enlisted them all.
Rain — which takes its name from a lesser-known Beatles tune that appeared on the flip side of Paperback Writer — is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to tribute bands. The band plays to sold-out concert venues around the world, and its 12-week Broadway engagement — the one that had them performing in Times Square as part of New York City's annual Broadway on Broadway concert — runs through January 9.
The extended Broadway gig marks a level of accomplishment rare for most tribute bands, and a precious period of semi-stability for a group that's been on the road almost forever.
"I was born in Manhattan," says Bithorn (who proudly pulled out his AARP membership card). "This is a chance to visit my old stomping grounds." Unwinding at Chez Josephine, a 42nd Street restaurant, after the outdoor concert, Curatolo confesses he wasn't surprised by the crowd's enthusiastic response (when the band abruptly stopped playing) on the long final fadeout of "Hey Jude," the audience continued its sing-along chant, "Nanana Naaaa — Hey Jude!"
"Everyone is a Beatles fan," he says. "In our day and age, you must be. We're just celebrating right along with them. It was beautiful."
In the show, Rain traces the Beatles' career from their 1964 Ed Sullivan appearance to their final recorded track on Abbey Road. None of the band's show is pre-recorded. The early Beatles songs have surprising complexity that makes live performance tricky enough. But later, the Beatles labored for weeks on individual songs — layering vocal tracks, adding instruments and sound effects, and famously playing some elements backwards. They made up their sonic landscape as they went along, and Rain had to listen to the Beatles' records and reverse-engineer the sound from scratch.
"We depended on our ears as the manuscript," says Curatolo. "Nothing was ever written out by the Beatles. To be able to pick out the nuances vocally and musically is an art in itself."
Glenn Miller Orchestra: The Legend Continues
No matter how old you are, the opening moments of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" — the mellow saxophones, the muted trumpets — will conjure up indelible images: Maybe you remember embracing someone in a melancholy dance as a World War raged outside, or catching a glimpse of your parents getting misty-eyed to the tune over an evening cocktail, or pushing aside your Rolling Stones albums, setting that old Victor disc on the record player, and rediscovering the glorious sound of 20 or so musicians, brass instruments ablaze, playing as one.
We're cheating a bit by including the Glenn Miller Orchestra as a tribute band — it's owned by Glenn Miller Productions, and many of its original members back in the 1950s were Glenn Miller veterans. The present incarnation began touring about 12 years after Miller was lost over the English Channel in 1944, and a generation or two of Big Band boys and girls have been at it ever since, playing hundreds of gigs a year nationwide. Musical director Larry O'Brien pulls most of his arrangements right from the Glenn Miller archives in Florida, a direct link to the man who became an early 1940s superstar with numbers like "A String of Pearls," "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "In the Mood."
On this particular night at the Carlyle Club of Alexandria, Virginia, the audience is a wondrous mix of 80-ish couples shuffling dreamily on the dance floor to "A Handful of Stars," 70-somethings finding the legs to bounce along to "Little Brown Jug," Boomers singing along as they dance to "Elmer's Tune," and kids in their 20s hurling each other around to "Pennsylvania 6-5000."
And presiding above them, resplendent in his white jacket, stands O'Brien, coaxing from his musicians a sound as mind-blowing as any electric guitar solo or arena rock anthem.
"We use lips and lungs instead of electricity," says O'Brien. He's about to retire after nearly a quarter century as the band's director, but the Glenn Miller legacy continues to unfold. "It's amazing how much material there is in that library," he says. "We're still finding things that have never been played."
Almost Queen: Against All Odds
In a way, even Queen doesn't try to sound like Queen these days. Following the death of the band's legendary front man, Freddie Mercury in 1991, the group has performed infrequently, and then with guest singers who seldom attempt to approximate the soaring voice with which Mercury imprinted songs like "Bohemian Rhapsody," "We Are The Champions" and "Radio Ga Ga."
So imagine the audacity of Almost Queen, four middle-aged guys who against all odds do a mighty fine job of capturing the look and sound of the 1970s hit-makers (and if you thought the Beatles or Pink Floyd had the bestselling album of all time in the UK, you'd be mistaken). It helps that in the role of Freddie, Almost Queen has Joseph Russo, a Broadway theater veteran who's got Mercury's prancing, preening showmanship down pat — along with a close cousin to his glass-shattering voice. But the band itself, a collection of top-drawer musicians with extensive music industry résumés, has mastered Queen's complex instrumentals and tight-knit harmonies.
"There have only been about three or four serious Queen tribute bands in the past 15 years," says Randy Gregg, who plays Queen bassist John Deacon. "It's really intricate music, and a scary thing to try to cover. I think people shy away from attempting it. We've been together almost six years, and in the past year we've really, really homed in on it."
While the surviving Queen members have never officially weighed in on Almost Queen's version of their body of work, there has been at least one subtle endorsement from the celebrated band's lead guitarist, Brian May.
"If you go to brianmay.com and type in 'Almost Queen,' our dates come up," says Gregg. "He's all for us."
The Pink Floyd Experience: The Ultimate Fan's Band
Here's what you'll want to know about The Pink Floyd Experience, the San Diego based Pink Floyd tribute band: They have a huge floating pig that hovers over the audience, an airborne image borrowed from the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals album.
"It's the only pig that I know that navigates and flies,"says band leader Tom Quinn, 55. "We're on our second pig now. The last one died when the stitching broke down and it lost helium."
Quinn grew up outside the musical mainstream ("I couldn't even listen to the Beatles; my parents were convinced they were a communist plot.") But when he was in high school in 1973, Quinn got an earful of Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon, and he was hooked. He got a guitar, started a band, and Pink Floyd covers topped the playlist. Quinn's music helped put him through engineering school, and he never stopped thinking Pink. In 1997, he and bassist Gus Beaudoin began playing Pink Floyd music anywhere someone would let them on the stage. Now their group performs nationwide, with a new tour beginning in February.
The blues-tinged progressive rock of Pink Floyd isn't an easy sound to duplicate with authenticity, but Quinn says true Pink Floyd fans don't cut pretenders any slack at all: "Just like Beatles fans, Pink Floyd fans know every note, every nuance. They know when it's not right. You have to respect the music."
Quinn has never met an actual member of Pink Floyd, but he did get to see co-founder David Gilmour perform at a taping of The Tonight Show in 2006.
"I was about eight feet away from him," he says. "I was like a little kid."


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Fox Effectively Cancels Us & Them
Fox has decided to shut down production on Us & Them, effectively canceling the series before it has even premiered, Deadline.com reports.
Us & Them stars Jason Ritter and Alexis Bledel as Gavin and Stacey, a young couple who decide to purse a long-distance relationship.
Exclusive: Us & Them casts Body of Proof's John Carroll Lynch
The network decided not to produce additional episodes after completing production on six episodes, plus the pilot. The news comes after the show went on hiatus early to work on scripts. Even though the network has not technically canceled the comedy, the cast has reportedly been told they are able to take other jobs.
(Hopefully this means Ritter can return to Parenthood!)
Us & Them is slated to premiere midseason.
View original Fox Effectively Cancels Us & Them at TVGuide.com
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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
New magazine...
Soup and a salad for dinner tonight. Turkey Noodle Soup and Mexican Salad with Pomegranate-Lime Dressing turned out to be a very comforting and filling meal. I have been waiting for an excuse to buy some pomegranates and glad I found this recipe. Juicing the seeds turned out to be much easier that I feared. The fresh pomegranate juice helps calm the tart lime and the dressing brightens up all the flavors in the salad.
This is the first time I have used Jicama, the taste is like a sweet apple with the texture of a potato. The original recipe called for pine nuts and arugala, but I used toasted sliced almonds and baby spinach.
This was a perfect night for soup. All the windows were open and the cool breeze (75 is cool nowadays...) brought the temperature in the house down. For being a quick soup, the flavor bursted out at the first spoonful! I used Trader Joe's chicken broth and with a small amount of prep time the soup was done in just a few minutes. Definetly a nice warm comforting soup with lots of turkey and noodles.
13 comments:
- Anonymous11/02/2005 11:38:00 PM
Martha's magazine sounds interesting. I just finished watching her show today.ReplyDelete
I'm going to save the turkey noodle soup recipe for around thanksgiving... leftover turkey. ;-)
The pomegranate in a salad sounds good. I'd like to try that. Just had a pomegranate the other day. It was messy but juicy and good.
- Anonymous11/02/2005 11:39:00 PM
BTW, how did you juice the pomegranate seeds?ReplyDelete
The soup looks yummy & I spotted the cookie magazine on my trip to the grocery today also, I flipped thru but didn't buy..YET lol I'm sure I will in a few days though, it did look wonderful.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous11/03/2005 11:31:00 AM
Oooh...I can't wait to get that Martha Cookie Mag for myself! I'm a total sucker for Christmas cookies!ReplyDelete
Great find!! Looks like I'll have to pick up that recipe mag and FAST!! I think I might have to plan ahead this year. First of all I have to work Thanksgiving, which I am NOT happy about. The tradeoff is I get xmas. And we spend Xmas in our tiny house in Carmel (virtually no kitchen) so I'll have to pre-make some cookies and fly with them. Eek!ReplyDelete
I love pomegranate seeds. My mom buys one every Thanksgiving for us to enjoy. Maybe we will have to try this dressingReplyDelete
- Anonymous11/04/2005 10:40:00 AM
Just bought some pom. seeds at Trader Joe's yesterday and I was looking for some way to use them!ReplyDelete
Paz - Her show is pretty good - I like it so far! To juice the seeds I just put it in a mortal/pestle and in just a couple seconds it was done! More juice than I thought too!ReplyDelete
Culinarily obsessed - Thanks! Get the cookie book if you can!
Alice - Me too! I can't wait till it gets closer!
Mona - Hmm, that is one nice tradeoff though!
Punky - The dressing was very good!
Lisasd - I just saw that they carried them as just seeds the other day. I wish I would of known that :)
- Anonymous11/04/2005 08:16:00 PM
I was just paging through a martha holiday cookie mag from 2001! There are still cookies in there I have yet to try. How's the current one look- or rather, do you like the collection of cookies included?ReplyDelete
So far looking through it I really like it Christina!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous11/07/2005 10:21:00 PM
On Friday, I went downtown in search for cardamon... Anyway, in front of a William Sonoma store, there was a very, very long line of folks waiting to go inside. I asked what was going on and was told that Martha was doing a book signing. The line was unbelievable.ReplyDelete
I didn't think I'd like her show, but it's growing on me.
Thanks for the pomegranate juicing tip.
I love the cookie magazine as well. I am going to make the wizard blondies tonight! Will post about it soon...ReplyDelete
I too love Martha's cookie magazine. It's just awesome.ReplyDelete
Thanks for the tip about getting pomegranate juice out of the seeds. Although I do admit, I cheat by buying pure pomegranate juice when I can find it at the supermarket.


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It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Here's why:
When Carl Sagan died, there was a hole left for a science educator that could engage with average people and get them excited by new scientific concepts. I feel like that role has gone to Dr. Tyson, though I'm sure he would forswear the comparison. I had a conversation with a couple of friends and raised the point that like basic math skills and basic language skills (although still not in many cases), it should be a prerequisite of having a career as a scientist that you can communicate your research with ordinary people (i.e., non-scientists). If the scientific community can't manage to bring the fire of the gods to the people (I am making a Prometheus allusion), then what are they (we) doing this for?
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Disclaimer: I am not God. Any judgemental statements are purely a result of my own hypocritical sinful nature. I know not who goes to heaven save me for the grace of God.
That said, I'm looking for some sort of explanation. Why do… um… (heathens? Lite-Christians? Words fail.) wear a cross around their neck? Is it purely a fashion thing? And if so, why is it a fashion thing?
There's a story this week about a couple, Trevor Blake and Nicola Fitzgerald, who were on a a British Airways flight from England to Jamaica. They drank quite a bit, had sex (twice) in the airplane restroom, then became loud and boisterous and beligerant enoguh to force the plane to be diverted to Bermuda where they were handcuffed.
This post is not so much about them, though, as it is about their picture.
I'm going to repeat my disclaimer, for what it's worth. If they want to be an unmarried, drinking, boisterous couple that has sex in public restrooms on an airplane, that's not my business. But why wear a cross around your neck that reminds us of the sacrifice of my Lord and Savior? Is it really necessary to drag His image through the mud as well?
The Christian faith is clear about many things – we can disagree on doctrine or application, but the basics are clear. Put your faith in Jesus, obey His word. By your words and actions show your faith to others.
I'm pretty sure the heavy drinking, beligerant and threatening behavior, and a bit of fornicating in the bathroom doesn't match up with the lifestyle Christ calls us to lead. Living a repropate lifestyle and wearing a cross around your neck – what's that all about?
Is it a fashion statement? Is it a thumbing of the nose at Christ? Why do people wear a cross if they are not following Christ?


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Top Items:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Backs Its Boy, HTC, In The Apple Lawsuit Ring — As you've undoubtedly heard by now, Apple has filed a lawsuit against device-maker HTC over 20 patents they control. As you might imagine, Google has something to say about it too. … A little odd that Google would proactively send us …
Discussion: Between the Lines, AppleInsider, CNET News, The Register, Computerworld, Macworld, WMPoweruser.com, Android Phone Fans, Agence France Presse, Bits, IntoMobile, Internet2Go, InformationWeek, Gadgetell, Electronista, iPhone Buzz, TiPb, Telegraph, DroidDog Android Blog, 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, Android Community, Pulse2, AppScout, Distorted-Loop.com, The Loop, SlashGear, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Neowin.net, EverythingiCafe, Erictric, CellPassion, Open IT Strategies, Mobile Entertainment and Edible Apple
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines: HTC responds to Apple; What's the long-term hit?
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News: Report: China Unicom to sell Android phones
Bill Ray / The Register: Apple turns the flamethrower on Android
Dan Nystedt / Computerworld: HTC says it uses own technology, not Apple's
Owen Fletcher / Macworld: China Unicom to use Android despite Google-China row
Rob Jackson / Android Phone Fans: HTC Hiring Patent Counsel
Nick Bilton / Bits: What Apple vs. HTC Could Mean
Marin Perez / IntoMobile: Google backs HTC in Apple's patent lawsuit, of course
Greg Sterling / Internet2Go: Apple vs. HTC (Android): It's Not about Money
Eric Zeman / InformationWeek: Apple v. Google: The Battle Is Fully Joined
Rene Ritchie / TiPb: Google Comments on Apple vs. HTC Patent Lawsuit
Matt Warman / Telegraph: Google stands by Android despite HTC and Apple lawsuit
Alberto Vildosola / DroidDog Android Blog: Apple feels Android's heat, goes after HTC
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac: Google comments on Apple-HTC suit
Eric Slivka / MacRumors: Google Stands Behind HTC in Patent Dispute With Apple
Brian Heater / AppScout: Google Stands By HTC in Apple Patent Battle
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop: HTC says it's a 'mobile technology innovator'
Chris Davies / SlashGear: Google "stand behind" Android and HTC in Apple lawsui
Frank Reed / Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim: Apple Takes HTC to Court, At Least That's What the Documents Say
Tom Warren / Neowin.net: HTC claims it didn't copy Apple, Google backs HTC
Tim Barribeau / EverythingiCafe: Analyzing The HTC Apple Patent Fight
Bertrand / Erictric: Google Reacts to Apple Lawsuit Against HTC
Joel West / Open IT Strategies: Live by the patent, die by the patent
Jonathan Adams / New York Times:
Strain on HTC From Apple Suit Is Likely to Be Long-Term — TAIPEI — Apple's patent lawsuit against HTC will not cause major problems for the Taiwan technology company in the short term, analysts said Wednesday. But it could strain its relations with partners in the crucial U.S. market …
Discussion: paidContent, Digital Daily and Windows Phone Thoughts.com
Tricia Duryee / paidContent: What's Next For HTC Now That Apple's Filed Suit
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily: Why HTC, Apple? And Why Now?
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
HTC issues second Apple lawsuit statement: "consumer choice is key"
HTC issues second Apple lawsuit statement: "consumer choice is key"
Discussion: Engadget, HTC - Investors and Phone Arena
Harry McCracken / PC World:
Eight Questions About Apple's Suit Against HTC
Eight Questions About Apple's Suit Against HTC
Discussion: PC World, Business Week, GMSV and Engadget
Tony Bradley / PC World: Apple Suit Against HTC Highlights Patent Issues
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week: Apple's Smartphone Battle Plan
John Murrell / GMSV: Wade into him, kid — I got your back
Nilay Patel / Engadget: Apple specifically going after Android in HTC lawsuit
Cade Metz / The Register:
Google Research head dubs holy PageRank 'over-hyped' — Norvig mum on 'Caffeine' search shot — Google research head Peter Norvig says that the search giant's hallowed PageRank link analysis algorithm is overrated. And always has been. — "One thing that I think is still over-hyped is PageRank …
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Google mulls blend of education, search
Google mulls blend of education, search
Discussion: ResourceShelf
Cade Metz / The Register:
Google 'personalizes' one in five searches
Google 'personalizes' one in five searches
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Digits
Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb: Can Google's Custom Search Create an Idea Echo Chamber?
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / Digits: Google Uses Personal Data to Tailor Up to 20% of Searches
Tim Difford / The Next Web:
First Google Buzz iPhone App Hits The Store - It's Buzzie! — Buzzie, the first iPhone app aimed squarely at users of Google's new social networking tool Google Buzz is in the iTunes App store. — The app gives non-Buzz users a taste of what the service is all about by letting them tune …
Discussion: VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, 901am, App Advice, Mashable!, Erictric, iLounge, epic.org, Silicon Alley Insider and Google Product Ideas, Thanks:m4tt
Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat: Buzzie launches as the first Google Buzz iPhone app
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb: Buzzie: The First Native Mobile App for Google Buzz
John Herrman / Gizmodo: Google Buzz Gets Its First iPhone App
Simon Sage / IntoMobile: iPhone Gets Google Buzz App - Buzzie
Arnold Zafra / 901am: Google Buzz Gets a Native iPhone App, Simply Called Buzzie!
Alexander Vaughn / App Advice: Google Buzz Gets Its First Unofficial iPhone App With Buzzie
Jesse David Hollington / iLounge: Buzzie provides native app for Google Buzz
Nick Saint / Silicon Alley Insider: Unofficial Google Buzz iPhone App Hits Apple's App Store (GOOG, AAPL)
Gillian Reagan / Silicon Alley Insider:
Rupert Murdoch: WSJ iPad App 'Under Padlock And Key' (NWS) — News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch confirmed that the Wall Street Journal is planning on building an application for Apple's iPad. — "In fact, we've been allowed to work on one, and it's under padlock and key," he told the crowd, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Discussion: AppleInsider, 9 to 5 Mac, TUAW, Wall Street Journal, MacRumors, Mashable!, MacNN, Engadget, Gizmodo and Electricpig
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac: Apple security has iPad under lock and key at WSJ
Dave Caolo / TUAW: Rupert Murdoch confirms WSJ for iPad
Shira Ovide / Wall Street Journal: Journal Launching New York Section
Barb Dybwad / Mashable!: Wall Street Journal App for iPad Confirmed
Donald Melanson / Engadget: Murdoch confirms WSJ coming to iPad, device kept 'under padlock and key'
Brian Barrett / Gizmodo: Rupert Murdoch Confirms iPad Version of WSJ
AT&T CEO sees iPad mostly used on Wi-Fi — * Does not see a lot of subscriptions for iPad — AT&T Inc (T.N) expects users of Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPad to connect to the Internet mostly using short-range Wi-Fi networks rather than AT&T's cellular network, the chief executive of AT&T said on Tuesday.
Discussion: CNET News, Computerworld, DSLreports, 9 to 5 Mac, Electronista, jkOnTheRun, TeleRead, Gadget Lab, The Toybox, CrunchGear, techblog.dallasnews.com, Mashable!, ReadWriteWeb, Erictric, FierceWireless, Digital Daily, Engadget, SlashGear, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, DVICE, Shelly Palmer, MobileContentToday and iLounge
Erica Ogg / CNET News: AT&T CEO sandbags iPad 3G subscriptions
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac: AT&T's CEO doesn't think many people will use the iPad on 3G
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun: How Much 3G Data Is Your Smartphone Using?
Chris Meadows / TeleRead: iPad Quick Notes: Book apps, release dates, AT&T
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab: AT&T Sees iPad as Wi-Fi Driven, Not a 3G Hog
Victor Godinez / techblog.dallasnews.com: VoIP could end expensive wireless voice plans, but AT&T still wants …
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!: AT&T: iPad Is a Wi-Fi Driven Product
Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless: AT&T chief: Industry moving toward usage-based pricing
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily: And Since We Still Don't Allow iPhone Tethering, We Can Guarantee …
Vladislav Savov / Engadget: AT&T CEO: iPad will be mostly used on WiFi, won't drive many new 3G subscriptions
Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal: Broadband Plan Calls for More Cash
Todd Ogasawara / MobileContentToday: Conspiracy Theory: AT&T Forced to Offer Contractless iPad 3G Data …
Charles Starrett / iLounge: AT&T CEO Stephenson talks iPhone, iPad at conference
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Twitter Staffer Stops Blogging After Backlash — Alex Payne, a Twitter engineer, is shutting down his personal blog after a comment he posted on Twitter became the subject of a TechCrunch blog post and caused a minor firestorm among Twitter application developers and others involved with the company.
Discussion: SiliconANGLE, Thanks:westmoon
Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins / SiliconANGLE: What We Now Know from the "Twitter Epic Tweet Scandal"
Vladislav Savov / Engadget:
Nokia adds Skype to Ovi Store, foreshadows death of regular phone calls — Skype for Symbian. A freely downloadable application that allows you to converse with your Skype-equipped friends over a WiFi or 3G connection. Seriously, why would you ever make another cellular call again?
Discussion: CNET News, VentureBeat, Nokia, Nokia Conversations, Unwired View, PC World, BetaNews, jkOnTheRun, Softpedia News, RotorBlog.com, Erictric, SiliconANGLE, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, SlashGear, Boy Genius Report, Tech Eye, GigaOM, IntoMobile, Tech Readers, Fone Arena, Dow Jones Newswires, MobileCrunch, 901am, Electronista, Qik Blog, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Mashable!, Phone Scoop and Phones Review
Jessica Dolcourt / CNET News: Skype lands in Nokia's Ovi Store
Paul Boutin / VentureBeat: How to make Skype calls on your USA Nokia phone
Ilinca Nita / Unwired View: Nokia offers Skype for Symbian via Ovi Store
James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun: Skype for Symbian Goes Live
Arnold Zafra / RotorBlog.com: Skype Gets Nokia's Userbase with Skype for Symbian App
John Furrier / SiliconANGLE: Google Should Buy Skype - Skype Launches App for Nokia Smartphones and Ovi Store
Chris Davies / SlashGear: Skype for Symbian S60 slides into Nokia's Ovi Store
Andrew Munchbach / Boy Genius Report: Skype hits Nokia's Ovi Store
Tony Dennis / Tech Eye: Nokia and Skype push Symbian client
Colin Gibbs / GigaOM: Skype's Nokia Deal Puts the Hurt on International Carriers
Stefan Constantinescu / IntoMobile: QiK Premium and Skype come to Nokia's Ovi Store, which is getting …
Zaheer Ahmed Khan / Tech Readers: Skype App Launched for Nokia Symbian SmartPhones
Gustav Sandstrom / Dow Jones Newswires: Nokia launches Skype for Ovi Store, Symbian phones
Robin Wauters / MobileCrunch: Skype for Symbian lands on Ovi Store = more than 200 million possible users
Arnold Zafra / 901am: Skype Now Available for All Nokia Smartphones
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch: Skype App Hits Ovi Store, And Potentially 200 Million Nokia Handsets Next
Kat Hannaford / Gizmodo: Free Skype App Now Available On Nokia Symbian Phones
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!: Skype for Symbian Now Live in Nokia's Ovi Store
Eric M. Zeman / Phone Scoop: Skype Lands in Ovi Store for Symbian Phones
Joel Spolsky / inc.com:
Let's Take This Offline — A decade ago, I started Joel on Software, a blog that put my company on the map. But as the business matures, I've come to realize that blogging is holding me back. — You've started a business. You've built a great product. Now you're trying to get the word out.
Discussion: Marketing Nirvana and /message
Stowe Boyd / /message: Spotsky Blogicide Note Has Great Advice, And Bad
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Socialtext 4.0 Launches With Groups, Better Search, And Activity Stream Filtering — There are a plethora of enterprise friendly collaboration platforms to choose from these days, with Yammer, Salesforce, Jive, Bantam Live, Socialcast, and others all vying for marketshare.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, eWeek and Ross Mayfield's Weblog
Alex Williams / ReadWriteWeb: Socialtext, Groups and the Context of the Social Web
Ross Mayfield / Ross Mayfield's Weblog: We Made Group-Forming Ridiculously Easy
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
Twitter Speeding Toward 10 Billion Tweets — About one year ago Twitter reached a huge milestone: one billion tweets. Four months ago, five billion tweets were served. And now, in about one day, Twitter should reach another very important milestone: 10 billion tweets. — Notice the trend?
Discussion: Bit Rebels, Twittercism, Erictric and Pulse2
Diana Adams / Bit Rebels: A Twitter Milestone: The 10,000,000,000 Tweet!
Amit Chowdhry / Pulse2: Twitter Getting Close To Hitting 10 Billion Tweets
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Foursquare And Gowalla Line Up For A SXSW Brawl With Site Updates — Last year at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, both Foursquare and Gowalla had their public unveilings. This year, with each rapidly gaining adopters (and mainstream interest), the two will likely battle …
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
Google and PayPal to Support New Government Login System — Open Identity Exchange (OIX) is a newly founded non-profit organization, launched today at the RSA Conference 2010 by Google, PayPal, Equifax, VeriSign, Verizon, CA and Booz Allen Hamilton. The aim of this new organization is exchange …
Discussion: blogs.ft.com, eWeek, Open Identity Exchange, InformationWeek, PC World and Finextra Research …
David Gelles / blogs.ft.com: One step closer to a single sign-on for the web
Brian Prince / eWeek: Tech Companies Partner in Web Identity Access Effort
Liz O'Donnell / Open Identity Exchange: Open Identity Exchange Launches at RSA
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Could (and should) Microsoft buy Twitter? — A number of Web pundits have suggested during the past year-plus that Microsoft should buy Twitter. (An equal number have advocated for Google to buy the company and save it from Microsoft's clutches.) — Would a Microsoft buy …
Discussion: Microsoft, AppScout, Rev2.org and The Microsoft Blog
Chloe Albanesius / AppScout: Microsoft Will Beat Google 'Someday,' Ballmer Says
Craig Agranoff / Rev2.org: Microsoft Buyout Rumors: Twitter - Yahoo
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Playdom Acquires Facebook Game Developer Offbeat Creations — Social gaming company Playdom has acquired Facebook game developer Offbeat Creations. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. — Offbeat Creations has developed several popular apps on Facebook including Super Farkle.
Discussion: PR Newswire and paidContent
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent: Playdom Buys 'Super Farkle' Developer Offbeat Creations
LouiV / BlackBerry Leaks:
First Live Images of a BlackBerry Slider; Could This be the Storm3? — Now here is something very interesting! It appears to be the first live images of a BlackBerry Slider! While we cannot confirm the legitimacy of these images just yet, they do seem ever so convincing.
Robert Evans / I4U News: BlackBerry Slider Spotted In The Flesh
Aaron Baker / PhoneDog.com: Pictures of BlackBerry slider device emerge
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs: BlackBerry Slider Rumors Update and Roundup (PS. …
Simon Sage / IntoMobile: BlackBerry Slider Spotted in the Wild
Robert Nelson / Gadgetell: Leaked images surface of a BlackBerry Slider
Duncan Geere / Pocket-lint: BlackBerry Slider spotted in spy shots
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget: BlackBerry slider photos leak out!
Benjamin Rubenstein / Neowin.net: First images of BlackBerry slider phone surface
Devin Coldewey / MobileCrunch: Leaked BlackBerry slider photos - man, that's ugly
Kim Poh Liaw / SlashPhone: Rumor: BlackBerry Goes Slider
Doug Aamoth / MobileCrunch:
Virgin Mobile increases value for prepaid broadband data buckets — $60 for 5GB — Virgin Mobile's Broadband2Go prepaid 3G data service made a splash last summer by offering no-contract plans that came close to competing with two-year offerings from the likes of Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
Discussion: SlashPhone, Wi-Fi Networking News and MobileBurn.com
Chris Davies / SlashPhone: Virgin Mobile USA increase pre-pay Broadband2Go data plans
Glenn Fleishman / Wi-Fi Networking News: Virgin Mobile Ups Data for On-Demand Broadband
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Smartphones: So advanced yet so hampered by ancient business models — AT&T manages to remove Google's search from an Android device. Verizon Wireless on the Devour drops in its Verizon Navigator to compete with Google's GPS capability. Meanwhile, apps like Bing are being force fed …
Discussion: dailywireless.org, blogs.ft.com, Gizmodo and IntoMobile
Sam Churchill / dailywireless.org: Walled Garden: Coming Back or Not?
Paul Taylor / blogs.ft.com: Motorola Devour: Full Review
Brian Barrett / Gizmodo: AT&T Ditches Google For Yahoo Search on Motorola Backflip
Paul Boutin / VentureBeat:
SharesPost Index tracks blue chip pre-IPO stocks — Facebook. Linden Lab. LinkedIn. Serious Materials. Tesla Motors. Twitter. Zynga. These are the Dow Jones Industrial Index of venture-backed, pre-IPO companies according to SharesPost, which lets accredited investors buy …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Taylor Buley / Velocity:
Analyst: Microsoft's Planned $1B Mobile Investment Means Palm Acquisition 'Unlikely' — With Microsoft mobile market share hovering in the low single digits and Palm's stock doing the same, there's been some speculation that the software giant could acquire the struggling handset manufacturer.
Discussion: Softpedia News, Erictric, The Next Web, WMExperts, MobileTechWorld, Fone Arena and Neowin.net
Matt Brian / The Next Web: Microsoft Won't Buy RIM, It'll Invest $1 Billion In Its Mobile OS Instead
George Ponder / WMExperts: Developers chime in on Windows Phone 7 Series
Varun Krish / Fone Arena: Microsoft plans to invest $1 billion in Mobile Space
Andrew Lyle / Neowin.net: Microsoft set to invest $1 billion in Windows Mobile
Opera: browser downloads tripled since browser ballot — Downloads of Opera's web browser have tripled since the EU implemented the trial version of its Windows browser ballot two days ago, the company's chief strategy officer Rolf Assev said today. The combination of a new beta and a prominent …
Discussion: Reuters, eWeek, Maximum PC and Pocket-lint
Tarmo Virki / Reuters: Opera says demand up as Microsoft opens EU market
Nicholas Kolakowski / eWeek: Microsoft's EU Browser Choice Screen Protested by Smaller Browser Vendors
Bart Salisbury / Maximum PC: Opera Sees Triple Downloads After EU Browser Ballot
Duncan Geere / Pocket-lint: Opera reports massive browser ballot boost
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Chris DeWolfe Makes His Move - Raises Big Round, Acquires Gaming Platform MindJolt — Last year we reported that MySpace founder and former CEO Chris DeWolfe was raising a big round of capital to start acquiring companies. He's now closed on that round of capital and has made his first acquisition.
Zee / The Next Web:
All 10.5 Million Wordpress Blogs Take Another Big Leap Into The Real Time Web — The real time web is officially upon us. Wordpress.com has just announced that all 10.5 million of its blogs have now gone real time. — Wordpress has ventured into real time before with support for RSSCloud …
Discussion: TechCrunch, WordPress.com News, ReadWriteWeb and Mashable!
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch: WordPress Makes A Big PuSH To Speed Up 10.5 Million Blogs
Joseph Scott / WordPress.com News: Rub-a-Dub-Dub in the PubSubHubbub
Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb: 10.5 Million Wordpress Blogs Get PubSubHubbub
Amy-Mae Elliott / Mashable!: WordPress Goes Real-Time With PubSubHubbub
Taiwan-based component makers doubt iPad production delay rumors — In response to reports that initial volumes of Apple's iPad in late March will be lower than originally planned and the launch will be only in the US market because production by Foxconn Electronics has been delayed …
Chris Davies / SlashGear: iPad production on track, claim Apple suppliers
Mic Wright / Electricpig.co.uk: Apple iPad launching March 26 with special gift for people who camp out?
Jonny / Distorted-Loop.com: iPad Kindle-killer (ships March 26), iBookstore expansion plans, more...
Dennis Sellers / Macsimum News: Foxconn: iPads still on track for late March shipment
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac: Foxconn suppliers say no delays on 700,000 iPads in March, a million in April
Paul Lilly / Maximum PC: Will Production Problems Delay the iPad?
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft: More than 2,000 major Web sites still not fully compatible with IE 8 — The bad news: More than 2,000 highly-trafficked Web sites are still not compatible with Internet Explorer 8 and require IE's Compatibility View support to display properly. The good news: That is down from about 3,100 sites a year ago.
Discussion: Computerworld, Webmonkey, IEBlog, Neowin.net, Softpedia News, The Register, GeekSmack and eWeek
Rick Broida / Computerworld: Erase Internet Explorer 8's Browsing History
Scott Gilbertson / Webmonkey: Microsoft to Double Down on HTML5 With Internet Explorer 9
Benjamin Rubenstein / Neowin.net: Internet Explorer 9 to introduce broader support for HTML5
Kelly Fiveash / The Register: Internet Explorer 8 still not mingling well with 2,000 highly-visited sites
Eugene Cheung / GeekSmack: Internet Explorer continues to face compatibility issues
Nicholas Kolakowski / eWeek: Microsoft Making IE 8 Fully Compatible with More Websites
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Ubuntu dumps the brown, introduces new theme and branding — Canonical has revealed the style of the new default theme that will be used in Ubuntu 10.04, the next major version of the popular Linux distribution. In a significant departure from tradition, Ubuntu is shedding …
Paul McDougall / InformationWeek:
Windows 7 Fastest Selling OS — Microsoft CFO says demand for the software will increase further as enterprises upgrade their PCs. — Microsoft has sold 90 million copies of Windows 7 since the operating system hit the market last October, according to the company's chief financial officer.
Discussion: The Windows Blog
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog: Windows 7: More than 90 Million Copies Sold!


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Top Items:
Andru Edwards / Gear Live:
iPhone 1.1.3 firmware feature gallery — Looks like the soon-to-be-released iPhone firmware 1.1.3 has quite a few surprises. We were able to get a look at it, and here is what we found: — That is all we have found for now. We also know that is you used AnySIM to unlock your phone, you can expect the 1.1.3 update to brick it.
Discussion: Podcasting News, Gizmodo, Engadget Mobile, ParisLemon, The Boy Genius Report, Roam4free, CrunchGear, Infinite Loop, PalmAddicts, Mobility Site, Tech Blog and Digg
Pat Phelan / Roam4free: iPhone new firmware due, iBricks to reappear
John Biggs / CrunchGear: 1.1.3 iPhone firmware pix
David Chartier / Infinite Loop: iPhone 1.1.3 to bring Home customization, Locate Me, more
Sam Mcloughln / PalmAddicts: New iPhone Update with Major Features?
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Video of iPhone Firmware 1.1.3 in Action and Evidence Shows Update Is Real — Here's a video of the allegedly iPhone Firmware 1.1.3. Update: It is very real, according to Natetrue and the evidence we have gathered from him. Knowing that the mighty Natetrue (the author of iBrickr …
Discussion: Mobility Site, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Odelbee and Slashdot
Brett Terpstra / The Unofficial Apple Weblog: iPhone firmware 1.1.3 breaks unlocks
Randall Stross / New York Times:
How to Lose Your Job on Your Own Time — WERE Henry Ford brought back to life today, he would most likely be delighted by the Internet: the uninhibited way many people express themselves on the Web makes it easy to supervise the private lives of employees. — In his day, the Ford Motor …
Discussion: Smalltalk Tidbits … and Podcasting News
James A. Robertson / Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants: Culture Change Rift
Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Updates from Your Gmail Contacts — One of the reasons why the chat box can no longer be disabled in the new version of Gmail is that it will include some new features: updates from your contacts. Yes, they are the same contacts you barely know, but these updates will help you learn more about them.
Discussion: Search Engine Land and TechCrunch
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land: Google The Stealth Social Network?
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch: Gmail To Offer Friend Updates?
Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
2007 Metrics — Google Operating System — Unofficial news and tips about Google — Sunday, December 30, 2007 — 2007 Metrics — Last year, when I posted some stats for this blog, I didn't realize that many blogs do that. These stats aren't very important to me …
Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins / Mashable!:
GMail: The New Social Network — What is the true measure of your social graph? If you ask Google, the answer is found in your contact database. In further moves designed to create a defacto social network, it was discovered by the source code sleuthings of Ionut Alex Chitu …
Zoli Erdos / Zoli's Blog:
Will Google Pull a Plaxo?
Will Google Pull a Plaxo?
Discussion: mathewingram.com/work
Garett Rogers / Googling Google: Gmail source code hints at social feature
Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
Google is God — For something I'm working on, I compiled a bunch of stats on Google (sorry, I didn't intend to blog it and so I didn't capture all the links, but I found the collection so compelling I thought I'd share it): — • Google is the "fastest growing company in the history of the world."
Discussion: Insider Chatter, Dan Blank, Twist Image and Mark Evans
Rebecca Buckman / Wall Street Journal:
VC's New Math: Does Less = More? — Thiel Seeks to Change Old Habits by Investing Small on Start-Ups — Three years ago, Peter Thiel, who runs a small venture-capital concern called Founders Fund, plowed $500,000 into a little-known social-networking Web site called Facebook Inc. Later on, his company invested a bit more.
Discussion: Furrier.org, HipMojo.com and broadstuff
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan / HipMojo.com: Taking Down the VC Establishment
Alan Patrick / broadstuff: FUNDING THE "EQUITY GAP" IN WEB TECH 2.0
Girl Gets Bizarre Surprise Instead of iPod — A little girl thought she was getting an iPod for Christmas but ended up getting a rude surprise. She got the box but when she opened it up, she found a surprising switch: the iPod had been replaced with a bizarre note.
Discussion: Gizmodo, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, Spluch, Leveraging Ideas, Engadget and The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Haroon Malik / Gizmodo: iPod Box Has Absurd Note Inside, No iPod in Sight
Scott McNulty / The Unofficial Apple Weblog: Girl opens iPod, finds wacky note instead
Janet Rae-Dupree / New York Times:
Innovative Minds Don't Think Alike — IT'S a pickle of a paradox: As our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off. Why? Because the walls of the proverbial box in which we think are thickening along with our experience.
Discussion: Slashdot
CmdrTaco / Slashdot: The Curse of Knowledge Bogs Down Innovation
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Using YouTube To Promote Vista & Live, Leaves Comments Open — Microsoft has taken its marketing push for Windows Vista and Windows Live into enemy territory by offering demonstration videos on YouTube (example above). The new channel (link) was launched December 21.
Discussion: Gizmodo and istartedsomething
Haroon Malik / Gizmodo: Microsoft Leaves Comments Open on New YouTube Channel
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
WhatsOpen shows you what nearby stores are open — WhatsOpen, a secretive local search company that promises an easier way to find which stores are open near you, is now open for public use. — Just type in the name of the store you're looking for, and your location.
Discussion: Valleywag
Desiree Everts / CNET News.com:
New security rules for batteries on planes — If you don't want to lose your spare lithium batteries for your camera, notebook or cell phone, you might want to pack carefully for your next flight. — New rules from the Transportation and Security Administration that take effect …
Discussion: Mobilewhack, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Mobility Site, The Mobile Gadgeteer and The WebGuild Blog
Jack Cook / Mobility Site: Are you traveling by plane? — You better check these NEW rules for batteries!
Matthew Miller / The Mobile Gadgeteer: New spare lithium battery travel rules go into effect 1 January 2008
Nick Gonzalez / TechCrunch:
Subvert And Profit Unapologetically Targets YouTube — Subvert And Profit is a service that lets users pay to get their sites on Digg (and more recently StumbleUpon). — Unlike Pay Per Post, the company doesn't waste a lot of time trying to spin their business into something socially acceptable.


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