Fatty Foods Affect Memory and Exercise

By Tara Parker-Pope

Eating fatty food appears to take an almost immediate toll on both short-term memory and exercise performance, according to new research on rats and people.

Other studies have suggested that that long-term consumption of a high-fat diet is associated with weight gain, heart disease and declines in cognitive function. But the new research shows how indulging in fatty foods over the course of a few days can affect the brain and body long before the extra pounds show up.

To determine the effect of a fatty diet on memory and muscle performance, researchers studied 32 rats that were fed low-fat rat chow and trained for two months to complete a challenging maze. The maze included eight different paths that ended with a treat of sweetened condensed milk. The goal was for the rat to find each treat without doubling back into a corridor where it had already been. The maze was wiped down with alcohol, so the rat had to rely on memory rather than sense of smell.

All of the rats studied had mastered the maze, finding at least six or seven of the eight treats before making a mistake. Some rats even found all eight on the first try.

Then half the rats were switched to high-fat rat chow (comprised of 55 percent fat), while the remaining rats stayed on their regular chow (which had 7.5 percent fat). After four days, the rats eating the fatty chow began to falter on the maze test — all of them did worse than when they were on their regular chow. On average, the rats on the fatty diet found only five treats before making a mistake. The rats who stayed with their regular food continued the same high level of performance on the maze, finding six or more treats before making a mistake.

read the rest> http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/fatty-foods-affect-memory-and-exercise/

Flip-flops are a magnet for dangerous, deadly bacteria

Flip-flops are the most disgusting thing I see on people’s feet. We need to somehow influence more people that flip-flops are dangerous and people should stop wearing them. NYC people unite and have flip-flops banned from city streets.

By Leah Chernikoff AND Jacob E. Osterhout
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Tuesday, August 11th 2009, 4:00 AM


Life on the street: Our reporters' germy flip-flops.

The flip-flop is the preferred summer shoe for many New Yorkers. But on city streets, the flimsy footwear can be deadly.

That film of grime that coats your feet at the end of a day of flopping around town is some dangerous dirt.

Lab tests of two reporters' flip-flops, worn for four days, revealed a potentially deadly germ - Staphylococcus aureus - lurking on the rubber.

If it seeps into a cut on your foot - an entirely common summer affliction - the bacteria can enter the bloodstream and, if left untreated, kill you.

"It can make you pretty sick if it got into a wound and into your blood, where it could attack any of your internal organs," says Dennis Kinney, Ph.D., the manager of the microbiology lab at EMSL Analytical. "If you didn't treat it with antibiotics, you could die from it."

read the rest > http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/08/11/2009-08-11_flipflops_are_a_magnet_for_dangerous_deadly_bac.html

G.M. Says Volt Will Get Triple-Digit City Mileage

Hello oil producing countries, the Volt technology revolution is coming to your front door.

By BILL VLASIC
WARREN, Mich. — General Motors said Tuesday that its Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle, scheduled for release in 2011, will achieve a fuel rating of 230 miles a gallon in city driving.

The rating is based on methodology drafted by the Environmental Protection Agency, and most other automakers have not revealed the mileage for the electric cars. Nissan, however, announced last week that its all-electric vehicle, the Leaf, which comes out in late 2010, would get 367 m.p.g., using the same E.P.A. standards.

Figures for highway driving and combined city and highway use have not been completed for the Volt, but G.M.’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, told reporters and analysts at a briefing that the car is expected to get more than 100 miles a gallon in combined city and highway driving.

read the rest here> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/business/12auto.html?hp

States End Up Losers in Gambling Pullback

Consumers' Timid Betting Leads to Drop in Income From Commercial Casinos and Lotteries, Exacerbating Budget Deficits

By CONOR DOUGHERTY

States' revenue from casinos, slot machines and lotteries is falling for the first time in many of the 48 states that have grown to depend on gambling as a crucial source of income.
View Full ImageAssociated Press

A technician looks over one of the 3,000 plus on the floor of the new Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh.

Revenue contributed by commercial casinos to state and local governments was down 2.2% in 2008, to $5.7 billion, according to the American Gaming Association, an industry trade group. In many states, the declines have continued.

Eight of the 12 states that allow commercial casinos saw their take of gambling revenue fall in the fiscal year ended June of this year, compared with the same period a year ago, according to data from states and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York.

In five of those states, including Illinois and Nevada, gambling income fell by a greater percentage than the state's overall revenue did. Nevada's gambling-tax revenue fell 15% in the fiscal year ended June compared with the same period a year earlier. That contributed to a drop of 10% in the state's overall revenue.

Many lotteries also are hurting. In a sampling of 20 state lotteries, including California and Illinois, 14 had year-over-year drops in revenue for the fiscal year ended in June, according to Rockefeller Institute.

It is a harsh reversal for states that had come to count on the gambling industry's rapid expansion to provide steady revenue growth. States saw total gambling revenue including casino games, lotteries and horse-racing wagers rise 65% from fiscal year 1998 to $23.9 billion in 2008. Overall state revenue over the same period grew to $774 billion, up 65%.

read more hear > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124985382195717807.html

Mexico and Canada Tussle Over Immigration

It continues to amaze me that Mexico blames their own problems on it's neighbors to the north. Mexico has to start to acknowledge their internal problems, correct them, and most of these tussles would be avoided.

Mexico and Canada Tussle Over Immigration

By MARC LACEY

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Ahead of President Obama’s arrival in Mexico on Sunday night for a summit meeting of North American leaders, immigration was prompting significant behind-the-scenes debate. But it was Mexicans entering Canada, not the United States, that was the contentious issue.

Too many Mexicans, the Canadian government complained, were fraudulently claiming political asylum in Canada, overwhelming the system. So Canada announced last month that it would begin requiring Mexican nationals to secure visas before entering the country, a decision that sparked outrage in Mexico.

The Mexicans struck back with an announcement that Canadian diplomats and government officials would now require visas to enter Mexico.

Although some angry Mexican lawmakers urged President Felipe Calderon to go further and require visas for all Canadian visitors, Mr. Calderon held off, not wanting to further damage Mexico’s tourism industry, which relies heavily on North American visitors.

Aides to Mr. Calderon said he planned to use his one-one-one meeting Sunday with Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister, to push Canada to reconsider its decision. No breakthrough was expected, though, with Canadian officials saying beforehand that they did not plan to immediately change the policy.

The annual summit, an outgrowth of North American Free Trade Agreement signed in 1994, is designed to put the United States and its northern and southern neighbors on the same page when it comes to policy. In fact, officials said Mr. Obama, Mr. Calderon and Mr. Harper intended to forge common strategies for climate change, fighting the swine flu virus and responding to the debilitating economic crisis.

read the rest >http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/world/americas/10prexy.html?_r=1

Sirius Widens Quarterly Loss

NEW YORK (AP) -- Satellite-radio operator Sirius XM Radio Inc. said Thursday its second-quarter loss widened to $157.4 million as one-time charges offset growing revenue.

Sirius has been struggling to turn a profit amid the recession's disastrous effect on auto sales -- a pivotal factor for the company because it signs up many of its new subscribers when they buy vehicles. It took a $530 million loan from Liberty Media Corp. in February in order to stave off a bankruptcy filing.

The downturn continued to hurt the company in the most-recent quarter. Sirius ended the April-June period with roughly 18.4 million customers, down about 1 percent from the year before. Its ''churn,'' or customer turnover rate, climbed to 2 percent from 1.7 percent.

Sirius helped mitigate those declines by cutting $187 million from expenses. It also boosted the average revenue it got from each subscriber per month to $10.66 from $10.55.

The company now expects $400 million in adjusted income from operations this year, up from a May forecast of $350 million.

Sirius said its per share loss amounted to 4 cents for the three months ended June 30. It reported a loss of $83.9 million, or 6 cents per share, a year ago. But those results did not yet reflect its July 2008 acquisition of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Sirius also had more shares outstanding in the second quarter of 2009.

The latest results included $108 million in charges related to paying off debt and other one-time costs. Before special items, the adjusted loss came to a penny per share, in line with analysts' expectations, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.

Sirius said its revenue more than doubled to $590.8 million, largely because of the XM acquisition. Assuming the acquisition had already been completed in the same quarter a year ago, revenue was up 1 percent to $607.8 million, matching expectations.

Governors Fear Added Costs in Health Care Overhaul

The fraying of the nation’s Medicaid system has many indicators, and one of them is Connie Baugh’s stockings.

Ms. Baugh received a letter the other day from the state saying that as a result of budget cuts, Medicaid could no longer pay for the compression stockings that support her circulation and keep her aching leg ulcers from flaring. “I thought, oh God, another problem,” recalled Ms. Baugh, a 77-year-old retired dietitian.

At $239 a pair, the stockings are more than one-third the value of the monthly Social Security check she lives on.

Such cutbacks, in response to the recession that has eroded state finances even while swelling Medicaid ranks, is the reason Washington’s Democratic governor, Christine Gregoire, is among governors from both parties who fear the implications of the health care overhaul now being devised in Washington, D.C.

The governors worry Congress will give the states expensive new Medicaid obligations without providing enough new money to pay for them.

“We can’t afford to have Congress raise the eligibility for Medicaid coverage without paying for it,” Ms. Gregoire said in an interview.

If anything, the states’ fears were stoked further last week when House lawmakers drafting health legislation reached a cost compromise with conservative Blue Dog Democrats that would force states to take on a greater Medicaid spending burden than an earlier version of the bill.

read the rest> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/business/07medicaid.html

Each New Employee at the New AMD Plant in Malta NY Is Worth $685,000 Dollars according to New York State ... WOW

A decade ago, it was 200 acres of pine trees near Saratoga Lake. A decade from now, it could be the booming heart of a new high-tech corridor, filled with some of the most sophisticated labs and plants in the country.

After years of haggling and setbacks, officials finally broke ground Friday on a $4.2 billion plant that will manufacture advanced microprocessors and would be the most advanced facility of its kind in the world. The plant, to be built on a 222-acre site, will be bigger than the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

Elected officials are counting on the expected completion of the factory in 2011 to provide a major boost to the ailing upstate region, where for years they have promised, and mostly failed, to deliver an economic resurgence.

The plant, which will manufacture chips for California-based Advanced Micro Devices and other chip design firms, will generate 1,400 new manufacturing jobs, officials say.
With the new factory as an anchor, they say, they can attract more investment to the area, building a cluster of businesses and academic centers that could ultimately rival Route 128 outside of Boston or North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

“You’ve got everything in place here to make the whole upstate region a leader in chip fab manufacture and high technology generally,” said Charles V. Wait, president of Adirondack Trust Corporation, a bank that helped finance early efforts to bring tech companies to the area. “When I grew up, you couldn’t find a job here in Saratoga, and everyone left after college.”

read the rest > http://bit.ly/2K8oEv

The Security Swamp - Will a new TSA passenger-screening program end up being a nightmare for travelers?

The name on my passport, my preferred form of travel identification, is Joseph Angelo Brancatelli. I was born on May 22, 1953. And I am a male.

I tell you these admittedly prosaic bits of personal trivia because I want you to know that I am not against giving this information to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). And if you want to fly, you, too, will soon be required to disclose this data to the TSA, the lumbering, leaderless, secretive bureaucracy that has spent the years since 9/11 alternately keeping us safe and infuriating us.

Secure Flight, the official name of this latest bit of data mining by the federal bureaucracy with the power over your freedom of movement, kicked in last week in typical TSA style: suddenly, with virtually no public discussion and even fewer details about its implementation. According to the agency's press release, which is buried half-a-dozen clicks deep on the TSA website, Secure Flight is now operative on four airlines. Which airlines? The TSA won't say. When will Secure Flight be extended to other carriers? Sometime in the next year, but the agency won't publicly disclose a timeline or discuss the whys, wherefores, and practical details.

read the rest > http://www.portfolio.com/business-travel/seat-2B/2009/04/07/TSA-Launches-Secure-Flight?PMID=alsoin/The-Security-Swamp

Foie Gras Palates, Hot Dog Pocketbooks

“The donut wars,” several blogs and news organizations called them, as if a platoon of cinnamon crullers were advancing on a phalanx of glazed. The dispatches from the front were numerous — and impassioned. This was clearly a contest of the utmost consequence.

It pitted Tim Hortons, a Canadian doughnut leader, against Dunkin’ Donuts, an American one. Last weekend, Hortons invaded Manhattan, displacing a dozen Dunkin’ stores and girding for battle with the rest.

But while this development could have been covered and discussed merely as a business story or even a parable of international comeuppance, it was almost instantly analyzed in epicurean terms. Which of the two fast-food chains fried a finer circle of dough? And how did the Hortons nuggetlike Timbit stack up against the shrunken Dunkin’ Munchkin?

The New York Daily News staged a taste test. So did the blogs Urbanite (affiliated with amNY), the Feed (affiliated with TimeOut New York) and Diner’s Journal (affiliated with The New York Times).

In so doing, they showed how the humblest of foodstuffs have come to be treated in the most exalted and rapt of fashions — worthy of probing, pondering and ranking.

This elevation of what was once considered junk food to the subject of vigorous aesthetic analysis represents the convergence of two trend lines. The first is many Americans’ growing sophistication about, and fascination with, what’s for dinner (or breakfast or lunch): the variety of it; the vocabulary for it; where to buy the best this; how to cook the best that. More and more people seem to insist on deliciousness, and more and more seem to have readily articulated opinions to go along with that demand.

read the rest >

The Gift Economist - The marketplace has spoken. The marketplace wants free - Questions for Chris Anderson

As the editor of Wired magazine and a champion of the online life, you have just written a controversial book, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price,” that suggests that companies can profit by giving away digital services and products. It’s paradoxical. By giving away products to lots of people, you can make money. Free is the greatest marketing tool there is. It allows you to expose the biggest audience to what you do, and then the question is: Who’s going to pay? Google is the poster child of free. It’s one of the most profitable companies in America, but it doesn’t show up on your credit-card statement.

Several critics have already pointed out flaws in your argument, citing YouTube as an example of a mass sensation that is losing enormous sums of money. YouTube is owned by Google and today loses money. But Google has achieved something extraordinary, which is a network-television-size audience. The problem with YouTube is not that it costs too much to deliver that video but that we have not found a way to migrate television advertising as quickly as the television audience has migrated.

Why not just sell subscriptions, as in the HBO model, which proves that people are willing to pay for quality?

The original concept of the information superhighway from the early ’90s was going to be exactly that. We’re now 15 years past that, and the marketplace has spoken. The marketplace wants free. Consumers want free, and if you decide to set up a subscription service, then your competitor will make a free one.

read the rest > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/magazine/19fob-q4-t.html?ref=technology

Exxon to Invest Millions to Make Fuel From Algae

The oil giant Exxon Mobil, whose chief executive once mocked alternative energy by referring to ethanol as “moonshine,” is about to venture into biofuels.

On Tuesday, Exxon plans to announce an investment of $600 million in producing liquid transportation fuels from algae — organisms in water that range from pond scum to seaweed. The biofuel effort involves a partnership with Synthetic Genomics, a biotechnology company founded by the genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter.

The agreement could plug a major gap in the strategy of Exxon, the world’s largest and richest publicly traded oil company, which has been criticized by environmental groups for dismissing concerns about global warming in the past and its reluctance to develop renewable fuels.

Despite the widely publicized “moonshine” remark a few years ago by Exxon’s chairman and chief executive, Rex W. Tillerson, the company has spent several years exploring various fuel alternatives, according to one of its top research officials.

“We literally looked at every option we could think of, with several key parameters in mind,” said Emil Jacobs, vice president for research and development at Exxon’s research and engineering unit. “Scale was the first. For transportation fuels, if you can’t see whether you can scale a technology up, then you have to question whether you need to be involved at all.”

He added, “I am not going to sugarcoat this — this is not going to be easy.” Any large-scale commercial plants to produce algae-based fuels are at least 5 to 10 years away, Dr. Jacobs said.

Exxon’s sincerity and commitment will almost certainly be questioned by its most galvanized environmentalist critics, especially when compared with the company’s extraordinary profits from petroleum in recent years.

read the rest> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/business/energy-environment/14fuel.html?_r=1&hp

Golfers Have Clothes Laid Out for Them

As Tiger Woods prepares to putt on the 18th green this weekend at the British Open, he will assess many variables: the speed of the green, the grain in the grass, the wind, the slope, even the moisture underfoot.

But there is one thing about Woods at the 138th British Open that has been set in stone for more than a year: the color and design of his shirt, pants and hat.

For Thursday’s first round, his shirt will be navy and striped. It will be a bright coral color Friday and white with a stripe Saturday. And Sunday, Woods will wear a new, textured red argyle shirt with black pants.

Golf is notoriously fickle, yet golf apparel manufacturers leave no marketing opportunity to chance. What Woods wears each day at every major championship this year has been scripted for him by his sponsor Nike since last summer. To ensure that retailers have a new design or color modeled by Woods on their shelves this weekend, Nike had its first meetings about Woods’s 2009 British Open wardrobe 17 months ago.

read the rest > http://bit.ly/zOMOh

The Invisible Hand, Trumped by Darwin?

IF asked to identify the intellectual founder of their discipline, most economists today would probably cite Adam Smith. But that will change. Economists’ forecasts generally aren’t worth much, but I’ll offer one that even my youngest colleagues won’t survive to refute: If we posed the same question 100 years from now, most economists would instead cite Charles Darwin.

Darwin, renowned for the theory of evolution, was a naturalist, not an economist, and his view of the competitive struggle was different from Smith’s in subtle but profound ways. Growing evidence suggests that Darwin’s view tracks economic reality much more closely.

Smith is celebrated for his “invisible hand” theory, which holds that when greedy people trade for their own advantage in unfettered private markets, they will often be led, as if by an invisible hand, to produce the greatest good for all. The invisible hand remains a powerful narrative, but after the recent economic wreckage, skepticism about it has grown. My prediction is that it will eventually be supplanted by a version of Darwin’s more general narrative — one that grants the invisible hand its due, but also strips it of the sweeping powers that many now ascribe to it.

Smith’s basic idea was that business owners seeking to lure customers away from rivals have powerful incentives to introduce improved product designs and cost-saving innovations. These moves bolster innovators’ profits in the short term. But rivals respond by adopting the same innovations, and the resulting competition gradually drives down prices and profits. In the end, Smith argued, consumers reap all the gains.IF asked to identify the intellectual founder of their discipline, most economists today would probably cite Adam Smith. But that will change.

read the rest > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/business/economy/12view.html?em

For Australian Winemakers, More Turns Out to Be Less

SYDNEY, Australia — Just a few years ago, Australia was being hailed as the great international success story of the wine business, challenging the dominance of France, Italy and Spain. From 1999 to 2007, foreign sales grew more than threefold, making Australia the world’s fourth-largest exporter.

But even as its star appeared to be rising, the Australian wine industry was sliding, selling a greater volume of wine at increasingly lower prices. Last year, the average price per liter of Australian wine sold overseas was about 25 percent lower than it was a decade ago, a level many say is unsustainable.

The industry is also facing increased competition from lower-cost rivals and changing consumer tastes. Last year, exports fell 9 percent by volume, the first such drop in a decade. Many vintners are hanging by a thread.

“The industry is in crisis — anything less than that is avoiding reality,” said Jeremy Oliver, an Australian winemaker and critic. “It is interesting that nobody really saw this coming.”

read the rest >http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/business/global/04wine.html?em

Europe's free health care has a hefty price tag

LONDON — As President Obama pushes to overhaul the American health care system, the role of government is at the heart of the debate. In Europe, it's a given.

The concept of free, state-run health care has been enshrined in Europe for generations. Europeans have built health systems so inclusive that even illegal immigrants are entitled to free treatment beyond just emergency care. Europeans have some of the world's best hospitals, and have made great strides in fighting problems like obesity and heart disease.

But the system is far from perfect.

In Britain, France, Switzerland and elsewhere, public health systems have become political punching bags for opposition parties, costs have skyrocketed and in some cases, patients have needlessly suffered and died.

Obama has pointedly said that he does not want to bring European-style health care to the U.S. and that he intends to introduce a government-run plan to compete with private insurance, not replace it.

read the rest > http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-07-05-europe-health_N.htm?csp=usat.me

The IT Companies Shouldn't Buy

For the better part of two decades, the mantra of giant server and storage makers was the coming of the paperless office.

Well, scratch that idea. The stacks of paper that have been digitized leaving a vast digital trail sends chilling--and sometimes thrilling--shivers down the backs of corporate lawyers. The volume of paper is still growing. It's time to face reality: The paperless office is never going to happen.

Neither will the completely virtual corporation. There needs to be a core to companies or they just don't work right. You can't run them without employees. What else that core includes varies from one company to the next, depending largely on the corporate culture. But so far, no one has succeeded in making money with no employees. And those employees need some technology.
What seems to be more in question these days is just how much technology. In the case of a trading house or a distributor, technology is the heart of the business. But in other cases, the subject is wide open for debate.

Interestingly, the companies that are fostering that debate are IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, each of which have made billions of dollars by convincing corporations that they need an endless infusion of new technology. Now the big vendors have done an about-face, declaring that companies can offload many of their non-critical, non-defining applications and servers. In some cases, they can even offload their critical applications. The big technology vendors will even set up internal clouds and run them more efficiently than an IT department can--or at least that's the pitch.

read the rest > http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/28/paperless-office-virtualization-technology-cio-network-sperling.html

The Social Cost of the Decline of Newspapers?Becker

We need to make sure we continue to support the traditional sources of news. With out them the truth may never be told. Professional journalists need our encouragement. -Peter

According to data compiled by my colleagues Matt Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro, the number of daily newspapers in the United States has been declining for more than 90 years, from a peak of about 2200 to its present level of about 1400. The decline started with the advent of radio, accelerated with the growth of television, and continued of course as the Internet became more popular. The likelihood is that many more newspapers will disappear during the coming decade, and that dailies no longer will be a major source of information and news. This has already happened to evening newspapers: their circulation went from about five eights of the circulation of all dailies in 1940 to only about 12% at present.

A free press has been a foundation of democracies because the press spreads information about political and other developments. This is why one of the first moves totalitarian and other non-democratic governments make is to suppress the press. For example, the Iranian government has closed virtually all newspapers that are openly critical of the government. Nevertheless, I do not believe that the decline in the number of dailies, even if it rapidly accelerates, poses a major threat either to the viability of democracies, or to the spread of political and other information.

The main reason for this belief is that the Internet is far more efficient than newspapers in providing news, information, and opinion. This is obvious with respect to sports, financial developments, and weather since online updates are much more frequent than is possible even for the best papers. During the past 10 days of the Iranian election crisis, my wife and I turned mainly to the Internet for the very latest news and pictures on what was happening in Teheran and elsewhere in that country. These sources certainly included online editions of several newspapers, but also important were various online accounts by observers of and participants in the protests.

read the rest > http://bit.ly/1S1rq0

Kodak Will Retire Kodachrome, Its Oldest Color Film Stock

This is a very sad moment in US business history.

Sorry, Paul Simon. Kodak is taking Kodachrome away.

The Eastman Kodak Company announced Monday it would retire Kodachrome, its oldest film stock, because of declining customer demand in a digital age.

It was the world’s first commercially successful color film, immortalized in Mr. Simon’s song in 1973: “They give us those nice bright colors. They give us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day. ... So, Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away.”

It enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and ’60s, but in recent years sales have dropped to just a fraction of 1 percent of the company’s total sales of still-picture films.

“It really has become kind of an icon,” said Mary Jane Hellyar, the departing president of Kodak’s Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group.

read the rest>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/technology/companies/23kodak.html?em

Printing That Won't Cost The Earth

Nothing is more visible than the printer as a source of materials wastage in the office. Every day reams of paper appear in the out tray awaiting collection and packs of refill paper and replacement cartridges stand as witness to the constant cycle of usage.

Consequently the printer industry receives more than its fair share of criticism and the manufacturers are becoming more proactive and creative regarding sustainability issues. Cartridge recycling is heavily promoted and duplex printing is often a default setting on office systems - reducing paper use by printing on both sides. There is also plenty of advice available on further reducing wastage such as carefully selecting emails and cutting and pasting only essential information for printouts.

read the rest > http://bit.ly/9ZtJ4

Credit Scores: What You Need to Know

You may not have checked your credit score lately, but there’s a good chance someone else has.

If you have applied for a mortgage or a loan — or even received a credit card offer in the mail — someone accessed that three-digit number to help determine the amount you can borrow and the interest you’ll owe on it.

So what goes into this all-important score? And how can you make sure you’ve got a good one?

The term credit score usually refers to your FICO score, a number based on a formula developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation. Fair Isaac looks at a summary of all your credit accounts and payment history. If you’ve got a mortgage, a MasterCard or a Macy’s account, it will be included in the report, as will late or missed payments. FICO scores range from 300 to 850, and Fair Isaac calculates them for each of the three big credit-reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. That’s one reason why your FICO score with each may differ slightly. Generally speaking, the higher your score, the more money you can borrow and the less you’ll pay for the loan.



read the rest > http://bit.ly/DGQc

Typing In an E-Mail Address, and Giving Up Your Friends’ as Well

I THOUGHT it was a little strange when I received separate e-mail messages from two people I knew only slightly asking me to click and see their photos on a social networking site called Tagged.

I ignored them at first, but then thought maybe I should check it out. After all, I should keep up on what’s hot in the social networking world, right? This could be the new Twitter.

That’s when I started doing everything wrong. I obligingly typed in my e-mail address and a password to see those photos. Well, the photos didn’t exist, but I had unwittingly given the site “permission” to go through my entire e-mail contact list and send a message to everyone, inviting them to see my “photos.”

read the rest > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/technology/internet/20shortcuts.html?_r=1&em

AmEx Charges You For Having A Negative Balance. What?

American Express hit Mike with a finance charge because his Blue card had a balance. A negative balance. Incredulous, Mike called and said, "so you dinged me for carrying a balance and not making a payment, even though it was a negative balance?," to which AmEx replied, "Right, even negative balances."

read the rest > http://consumerist.com/5288105/amex-charges-you-for-having-a-negative-balance-what

Top 10 Wine Myths

Urban legends and myths continue to dupe us. Until the Paris tasting in 1976, the myth that France was the only Country that could produce high quality wine lived on in oenophiles minds. Even though you may laugh at the myths below some people are still fooled by them. Let’s try to set the record straight.

This is a must read > http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-wine-myths.php

The Shame of Living in New York State! Will It Ever Be Fixed?

ALBANY — For a fourth day, pandemonium reigned in the Capitol.

Republicans used a mysterious set of keys to force their way into the Senate chamber for the first time since their leadership coup on Monday. Protesters chanted “Senate not for sale” and banged on the chamber’s windows while Republicans tried to convene. And the Republicans’ vow to resume the session fizzled after one of the two dissident Democrats they were depending on for a quorum, Hiram Monserrate of Queens, walked out of the chamber shortly after the proceedings began.

Both sides continued to battle in court; a hearing is set for Friday morning, and Democrats will argue that the Republicans’ coup was illegitimate.

“The dysfunction and chaos in the Senate has wasted an entire week of the people’s business,” a clearly irritated Gov. David A. Paterson said in a statement released Thursday. He has been largely relegated to the sidelines during the dispute.

read the rest> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/nyregion/12albany.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

Is GM the New Amtrak?

Taxpayers are still sinking billions of dollars into Amtrak—almost 40 years after buying it. Economist James Langenfeld says the bailout of GM could be an even bigger disaster.

Both Congress and the Obama administration apparently believe a bailout is best for GM, and that “what’s good for General Motors” is still good for America. So we taxpayers appear to be on the brink of owning most of GM. Do we know what we are buying, how long we will own it, and what it will really cost? Perhaps we can learn some lessons from another government owned company, the National Rail Passenger Corporation—aka Amtrak.

Read the rest> http://tinyurl.com/ndbela

Stimulus Funds Spent to Keep Sun Belt Cool

The federal government is spending $5 billion in stimulus money to weatherize homes across the country. That is almost as much as it has spent on weatherization since the program was created in the 1970s to cut heating bills and conserve oil for low-income people.

But this year, there is a twist.

An unusually large share of the money will be spent not on keeping cold air out but on keeping cold air in. As a result of a political compromise with Sun Belt lawmakers last decade, the enormous expansion of the weatherization program will invoke a rarely used formula that will devote 31 percent of the money, nearly double the old share of 16 percent, to help states in hot climates, like Florida, save on air-conditioning.

Many environmentalists say that cutting the use of electricity for cooling is just as worthwhile as reducing the use of oil or gas for heating. But there are substantial questions about whether it is the most efficient way to save energy.

read the rest > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/science/earth/08weatherize.html?hp

5 Things For Chrysler & GM Car Owners To Know Now

Now that Chrysler and GM are getting remixed, what does this mean for me? Consumer Reports Online Auto Crisis Center has the answers to five questions every Chrysler and GM car owner will want to know as the two car companies move their restructuring.


reda the rest here > http://consumerist.com/5278613/5-things-for-chrysler--gm-car-owners-to-know-now

Not So Cold ... Doctor’s Order .. the chilling white wine far too long

IT could be that I’m a crank. Or a grump. Or maybe I’m anticipating that time in life when I’m not expected to be anything but cranky or grumpy. But I must call attention to an almost reflex practice among many American wine drinkers that troubles me in the extreme.

It’s the habit of chilling white wine far too long and drinking it way too cold.

This is perhaps a pointless argument to make in a country that loves things cold. We demand ice cubes in just about any beverage but beer, yet fetishize cold beer to the extent of marketing a brand simply by promising it will offer an icier drinking experience, all while reveling in the shivery goose-flesh chill of over-air-conditioned theaters, restaurants, cars and offices.

Nonetheless, I feel that I must try if only because it is clear to me that drinking overchilled white wine — good white wine — deprives one of fully enjoying the complex aromas and delicious flavors in the glass.

read the rest> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/dining/03pour.html?_r=1&ref=dining

At $2.3 Billion, This Mall Could Be Too Big to Fail

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The chair lifts, fans and snow guns are in place, which means that the 800-foot indoor ski slope, the only one in the country, is ready to be covered with manufactured snow. The floor tiles, including some with intricate mosaic patterns and others that sparkle like fireflies, have been laid. The anchor restaurant, a Cheesecake Factory, looks as if it could be welcoming customers before long.

But although its common areas are nearly completed, the 2.4-million-square-foot Meadowlands Xanadu is eerily quiet.

The opening of the $2.3 billion entertainment-and-shopping center, originally scheduled for last November and then postponed until this summer, has been delayed again until some unspecified date next year. Work has slowed considerably at the project, which occupies state-owned land in the Meadowlands Sports Complex, at the intersection of Route 3 and Interstate 95, where the Giants and Jets are building a football stadium.

Read the rest > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/realestate/commercial/20xanadu.html?ex=1259035200&en=e61c24c3e7a6b8d3&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=RE-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M099-ROS-0609-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click

The Elders of California

While out in California recently I took part in a tasting of wonderful old California cabernet sauvignons at a benefit for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. The tasting, held on a breezy, transporting afternoon in the Berkeley foothills, in the comfortable living room of Dwight M. Jaffee, a finance professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lynne LaMarca Heinrich, a fund-raising consultant, was another confirmation of how well California cabernets can age.

read the rest > http://thepour.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/the-elders-of-california/?src=twt&twt=nytimesthepour

Millionaires Go Missing

Here's a two-minute drill in soak-the-rich economics:

Maryland couldn't balance its budget last year, so the state tried to close the shortfall by fleecing the wealthy. Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%. And because cities such as Baltimore and Bethesda also impose income taxes, the state-local tax rate can go as high as 9.45%. Governor Martin O'Malley, a dedicated class warrior, declared that these richest 0.3% of filers were "willing and able to pay their fair share." The Baltimore Sun predicted the rich would "grin and bear it."

One year later, nobody's grinning. One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller's office concedes is a "substantial decline." On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year -- even at higher rates.

read the rest > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124329282377252471.html

An in-depth guide to Champagne

For as much as Champagne is beloved, there's a gaping void in advice about it once you move beyond the same few obvious names.

Part of this is intentional: Champagne more than most places is dominated by its largest brands (in turn run by large corporations with more than bubbles on their minds), and despite the endless enthusiasm of we writer types for many smaller houses, most have neither the money nor werewithal to compete. So Champagne remains wrapped in a well-woven mystique.

Read the rest > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/wine/detail?blogid=54&entry_id=40099

FACT CHECK: Are US Students Really That Bad?

America's moms and dads are getting a good scolding: Your kids are lagging behind students all around the world.

The White House says so, with concern bordering on alarm. So do institutions such as the Gates Foundation, citing performance tests, graduation rates and other benchmarks.
But don't measure for dunce caps just yet.

While they're not in first place, U.S. students generally hold their own on international tests. They spend more time in school than the Obama administration would have you believe. And their college graduation rates stack up better than reported.

That is not to say the critics are totally wet, that the U.S. can't do better.

read the rest > http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/05/18/us/politics/AP-US-Education-Trash-Talk.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

From Frisée to Finance, It Has to Be Perfect

Known for his sumptuous menus and seamless service, Mr. Boulud — the name, brain and palate behind one of the country’s gold-plated dining empires — has already taken a bow for just about every round of applause that the industry has to offer. With the Dinex Group, a management company he co-founded, he and a team of managers and accountants oversee an operation with more than 900 employees in markets as far-flung as Beijing and Vancouver.

They have not misfired yet, but Mr. Boulud and his cadre might be trying their trickiest maneuver to date, creating DBGB at a moment that is smiling on fast food and little else. In this environment, you could forgive the man for cutting a few corners, or scaling back his ambitions.

read the rest > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/business/17boulud.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

A Cloud In Every Garage

In light of all of the historical comparisons about the current economic situation and its proposed fixes, I'd like to offer my own perspective based on technology trends that have the potential to re-ignite growth for decades. My analogy comes from what at first sounds like an unlikely source: the automobile industry.

In the early 1900s, Ford ( F - news - people ) mastered the art of assembly line manufacturing, revolutionizing production techniques across industries, from consumer goods to large-scale machinery. What was once the privilege of the upper class became within reach of the average citizen.

The efficiencies gained through mass production not only put a car in every garage, but also catalyzed consumer culture, reset the baseline standard of living and reshaped everything from how and where we worked, to how and where we lived.

The introduction of the assembly line began moving our economy away from an inefficient, build-to-order model to scale manufacturing. Over the last century, the automotive industry dramatically refined the art. Today, companies including BMW run highly automated factories that seamlessly integrate customers' orders with parts suppliers and dealerships. This configure-to-order model allows for customization not available in the Model-T era, while preserving and enhancing the efficiencies gained by the assembly line.

The early 21st century is like the early 20th century in that we are at the beginning of a new economic paradigm. This time, however, the engine of growth will not be manufacturing, but information.

The equivalent of the assembly line is industry standard hardware, the components used to build the backbone of the largest Internet companies on the planet. Standardized hardware has unshackled the computing power once trapped in mainframe computers, democratizing it so that all can share. More recently, software has been developed that virtualizes, automates and differentiates this hardware to enable a configure-to-order model for the IT industry.
Even better: The "cloud" can deliver these capabilities and offer a new level of customization and efficiency at affordable prices and on a massive scale.

There's been a great deal of hype in the industry about cloud computing. To say it simply, the cloud is the next stage in the evolution of the Internet. Its impact, however, will be sweeping, fundamentally changing the way we connect with each other and with information.

The cloud is making once-expensive information technology available to a mass market through a pay-per-use model. This promises to increase productivity and drive growth. Small and medium-sized businesses can leverage data to drive efficiencies and improve products and services. Large companies can shift applications to the cloud and so spend their resources on the technology that gives them a competitive advantage.

More importantly, with this underlying infrastructure in place, both large and small companies can use technology to expand or invent services, open up markets and address some of the biggest challenges we face as a global society. For individuals, this promises services that are more intuitive, personalized and relevant in our daily lives. Here's one example:
HP has a cloud service, called MagCloud, that makes it possible for anyone to publish a professional-quality magazine and print, promote, sell and deliver it on demand. Printing on demand means no large press runs, no pre-publication expense, no waste.

By eliminating substantial pieces of the physical supply chain, we can offer professional-quality print to a mass audience while reducing the impact on the environment. The same on-demand technology can be extended to book publishing and allow individuals to print customized books, mixing their own content with that of professionals.

Looking ahead, we envision a rich ecosystem of printing services--connecting businesses to businesses and businesses to individuals--that delivers information where, when and how it's needed.

This is truly just the beginning. The cloud makes it possible to deliver everything as a service--from business processes to personal interactions--and to create altogether new business models across industries.

In my view, the ability to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship in this new model is one of the most promising ways to ignite the next wave of economic growth. We can no more see the full impact of the cloud than Henry Ford foresaw the impact of his desire to produce more cars in less time.

Vitamins Found to Curb Exercise Benefits

If you exercise to improve your metabolism and prevent diabetes, you may want to avoid antioxidants like vitamins C and E.

That is the message of a surprising new look at the body’s reaction to exercise, reported on Monday by researchers in Germany and Boston.

Exercise is known to have many beneficial effects on health, including on the body’s sensitivity to insulin. “Get more exercise” is often among the first recommendations given by doctors to people at risk of diabetes.

But exercise makes the muscle cells metabolize glucose, by combining its carbon atoms with oxygen and extracting the energy that is released. In the process, some highly reactive oxygen molecules escape and make chemical attacks on anything in sight.

read the rest> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/health/research/12exer.html?_r=1&em=&pagewanted=print

Guy Sues Burger King For Forgetting to Hold The Pickles, Onions & Tomatoes

A little over two years ago, a Virginia man ordered a a drink and two sandwiches from Burger King. He then proceeded to take a bite and swallow— before he realized that his "specific request for the omission of onions, pickles and tomatoes had not been complied with." The result? A lawsuit for $100,000 filed in the Virginia Beach Circuit Court.

The Burger King customer says that the inclusion of said condiments was "tantamount to negligence," and that he suffered a severe allergic reaction to the food that caused him to miss work while the medical bills piled up.

The world has to many dolts in the world!!!!

read the rest> http://consumerist.com/5249753/guy-sues-burger-king-for-forgetting-to-hold-the-pickles-onions--tomatoes?skyline=true&s=x

Study: More Women Named to Boards

Are more women moving into corporate boardrooms?

At least one study says yes. In the first three months of the year, 38% of new directors – 38 of 101 appointments – were women, according to data compiled by quarterly journal Directors & Boards. That's the highest number and percentage since the publication began counting in 1994.

Women's share of board appointments has been climbing for the past two years and spiked in the most recent quarter, says James Kristie, editor of Directors & Boards. For all of 2007 and 2008, it averaged about 25%; in 2006 it was 18.5%.

Read the rest >http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124208439032108595.html

All You Need to Know to Twitter

Twittermania has only begun. In the days after Oprah’s show, Twitter’s traffic growth is accelerating. The ratings service HitWise now ranks twitter.com as America’s No. 38 Web site. It’s about to rocket past CNN and Wells Fargo.

Because it’s kept simple, most users figure out Twitter quickly. If you began tweeting the day of Oprah’s show, it’s a safe bet you already know how to DM a private message to a friend, and how to R.T. a joke worth retweeting. You search for #swineflu every few hours, and know it’s called a hashtag. You’ve learned how to follow Demi Moore and block online marketers.

Assuming you’ve got these basics down, there are many less obvious tips and tweaks to get more from tweeting. They all can be Googled, but the online version of this article has the links.

read the rest here > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/technology/personaltech/07basics.html?em

8 NEW RULES FOR ORDERING WINE

NOTHING strikes fear in the hearts of diners like the wine list. It's filled with foreign words, vexing varietals and eye-popping prices. But there's never been a better time to up your wine game now that restaurants are reducing menu markups, eliminating corkage fees, pouring it from beer kegs (it's cheaper and eco-friendly!) and --...

read the rest here> http://www.nypost.com/seven/05062009/entertainment/food/8_new_rules_for_ordering_wine_167893.htm

Turkey Burgers Don’t Count

ONE by one they approached the counter at Zaitzeff, a storefront in New York’s financial district, and repeated the words like a mantra. Half-pound sirloin burger. Bacon. Cheddar.
None of the seven men, still in neckties from the workday, dared order a turkey burger ($8.50 on the chalkboard menu). Nobody got the sliders ($12.50 for three). Not one request for Kobe ($9.75 for a quarter-pounder, $15.50 for a half).

“If anybody didn’t order a half,” Brett Weiss told the beefy guy taking it all down on a restaurant pad, “make them a half-pound anyway.”

Mr. Weiss, 33, operations manager for a software company, is the founder and de facto leader of the Burger of the Month Club, or BOTM (which he and his friends pronounce “bottom”). One Monday a month for the last four years, they have sampled a burger — bacon-cheddar whenever available — at a different New York restaurant.

They do not just eat the burgers, they rank them, compiling the averages on a Web site, burgerrankings.com, and competing through the year to see whose restaurant choice will wind up as the best-loved burger (winner gets ... nothing).

Read the rest here>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/dining/06burg.html?_r=1

The Hottest Role in Bollywood: Member of Parliament

PATNA, India -- On Thursday, Indian voters in Patna, capital of the unruly state of Bihar, will face a stark choice for the national Parliament: Will it be "Shotgun" or "Shaker"?

The two aren't local toughs. They're Bollywood stars. Shekhar "Shaker" Suman, an actor and TV talk-show host who models himself on Jay Leno, is running for the Indian National Congress, the party that now runs the ruling coalition. His rival from the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is Shatrughan "Shotgun" Sinha, a movie star and a judge on one of the country's most-watched TV talent shows.

The two men are part of a surge of Indian celebrities throwing their hats in the ring this year. Bollywood actors turned politicians have been around almost as long as Indian democracy. But this year, in a race with hundreds of competitors, parties are relying more on celebrity power than ever before, with at least a dozen movie stars and entertainers in the mix.

read the rest > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124156460089789341.html

A Walk in Calcutta - compelling read

ON a rainy day in the late 17th century, an enterprising agent of the British East India Company named Job Charnock sailed along the Hooghly River, a tributary of the Ganges that flows from high in the Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal, and pitched a tent on its swampy banks. The company bought three riverside villages. Soon they would become a port — flowing with opium, muslin and jute — and then, as the capital of British India until 1912, draw conquerors, dreamers and hungry folk from all over the world.

Calcutta, India’s first modern city, was born.

read rest here> http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/travel/03calcutta.html?8dpc

Pending U.S. Home Resales, Construction Spending Climb in Sign of Recovery‏

This is great news!!!!

May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Pending sales of U.S. existing homes posted their first back-to-back gain in almost a year in March and construction spending ended a six-month slide, spurring a rally in stocks and sell-off in Treasuries. The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes jumped 3.2 percent after a 2 percent gain in February, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington.

Construction unexpectedly rose 0.3 percent as gains in commercial and government projects overshadowed a continued drop in homebuilding, Commerce Department data showed. Benchmark stock indexes climbed to levels unseen since January, and Treasuries fell for a fifth day, after the reports underscored that the worst of the recession is past.

Shares of builders including Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., Lennar Corp. and Pulte Homes Inc. rallied on optimism the four-year housing slump will end this year. “People are worrying a bit less about a depression and starting to see signs of recovery,” said James O’Sullivan, a senior economist at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut.

The Big Bored: NYSE Traders Look for Diversions as Life Slows on Floor

On Thursday by 10:30 a.m., trading had been under way for an hour on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Down a stone stairwell, half a dozen traders sat in a dark room, slumped in black office chairs watching a movie.

Officially a members' lounge, the "Movie Room" has screened hundreds of DVDs on a TV set during trading hours, traders say. "Rambo," "Star Wars" and "Wall Street" are among the favorites.

As the financial markets continue their wildest ride in decades, many once-frantic floor traders find themselves all dressed up in mesh-backed jackets with less work to do. Some say they're flat-out bored.

Read here> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124139512869981763.html

A Way to Modernize Health Records

At Midland Memorial Hospital in Texas, nurse William Winslett used to spend hours deciphering physician's scribbled notes, filling out forms and retrieving misplaced patient charts. Worst of all was the pneumatic tube system used to shoot orders and other documents between floors -- or, at least, that was the idea.

"Sometimes the tube system was down or got stuck," recalls Mr. Winslett. As for patient charts, "sometimes we couldn't find them at all."

read here > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124104350516570503.html

Wiped Out: Along With Jobs, Laid-Off Lose Photos, Emails

Michele Wallace had worked for Medialink Worldwide Inc. for 18 years when the New York video-distribution company laid her off last May. When the company's information-technology staff quickly shut down her computer and her BlackBerry, the senior vice president of client services lost family photos and every personal and business contact on her cellphone and computer.

"I couldn't even call my sister because I don't know her number off the top of my head," says Ms. Wallace, now a 47-year-old managing director at Mega Media Worldwide and living in Asbury Park, N.J. "I know you shouldn't even have that stuff on the computer," she says. But in the course of working 10- to 12-hour days for several years, "you don't pay as much attention as to how much is personal on your computer."

read the rest >http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124105119428271155.html

BYOB Joints in NYC

A Cafe & Wine Room – BYO w/ no corkage fee
Apiary — No corkage fee on Monday nights
Baoguette / Baoguette Cafe — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Beacon — No corkage fee on Sunday nights
Broadway East — No corkage fee on Sunday and Monday nights.
Cafe Himalaya (aka, Himalayan Cafe) – BYO w/ no corkage fee
A Casa Fox – BYO w/ no corkage fee (the fireplace is a plus)
Chow Bar — BYO w/ $10 corkage fee
Cipolla Rossa — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Cipriani Downtown — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Dylan Prime — Corkage fee has been waived through Memorial Day
El Parador — No corkage fee on Monday nights and 20% off any bottle on the list
Houston’s — BYO w/ no corkage fee at both locations
Island Burgers & Shakes — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Joe’s Shanghai — BYO w/ no corkage fee at both locations
Keste Pizza & Vino — BYO w/ no corkage fee (N.B., still BYO as of 4/27/09)
La Palapa West — BYO w/ $10 corkage fee
La Sirène Bistro : BYO w/ no corkage fee (cash only)
The Modern — No corkage fee on Sunday nights
The Orchard – No corkage on Sunday nights
Palacio Azteca — BYO w/ no corkage fee (thanks to our friend Andrea for telling us about this one on the UES)
Philip Marie — BYO w/ $7 corkage fee
San Marzano Pizzeria — BYO w/ no corkage fee
Tabla — BYO w/ no corkage fee on first 2 bottles, $25 each additional bottle
Tadka – BYO w/ no corkage fee
Tribeca Grill - No corkage fee on Monday nights
Union Square Cafe — Reduced corkage fee from $25 to $10
Via dei Mille — BYO w/ $10 corkage fee
Wo Hop — it’s BYO w/ no corkage at this Chinatown spot know for it’s late night/early morning dining
Yama – BYO w/ $10 corkage fee

AND HERE ARE THE USUAL SUSPECTS ON THE BYO SCENE:

Panna II Indian Restaurant (East Village)
Cube 63 (Lower East Side)
Tartine (West Village)
Peking Duck House (Chinatown)
Poke (Upper East Side)
Ivo & Lulu (Soho)
Gazala Place (Midtown West)
Sticky Rice (Lower East Side)
Bellini (Upper West Side)
Persimmon Kimchi House (East Village)
Sigiri Sri Lanka Restaurant (East Village)
Nook (Hell’s Kitchen)
Di Fara Pizza (Brooklyn)
Kuma Inn (Lower East Side) $5 — Click here for our dinner at Kuma Inn
Grand Sichuan (Various Locations) $5 but only if they don’t have your bottle on their list

Meals Worth a Flight (or a Cab Ride)

“THE shock of the familiar” is how I think of a visit to a once-favorite restaurant after an absence of 20 years, an experience that has shaped my travel plans ever since. The year was 1979, and I was in Paris after a three-week eating trip throughout France to report on the work of the then-young turks of la nouvelle cuisine: Bocuse, Guérard, Chapel, the Troisgros brothers, among others. Fully sated on innovation and culinary cleverness, I was starved for the traditional flavors that defined France to me, and so I decided to seek out the oldest chef in Paris.

That search lead me back to L’Ami Louis, and the 80-year-old Antoine Magnin, the reigning chef since the place opened in the mid-1920s (and hadn’t been painted since). Despite having loved it on my previous visits, I had not been back in years, mostly because I was too often curious about the new and the hot. Though always outrageously expensive, given its worn appearance and total lack of chichi, Louis’s place, as I came to think of it, made me feel as if I had just come home, an impression that gained strength as the food for four of us began to arrive: gigantic, sumptuous snails sizzling in giant shells under a haze of garlic; the housemade, cream-rich foie gras that released its seductively decadent flavor as we spread it on bread toasted over a wood fire; nut-brown roast Bresse chicken, pink gigot of lamb, and the exceptionally crunchy, roseate veal kidneys; potatoes roasted in duck fat and fresh morels adrift in heavy cream. Not a clever idea on the plate, just simple perfection of classics! There and then I resolved never to go to Paris without at least one visit to what remains, under Mr. Magnin’s worthy sucessors, my favorite restaurant in the world as I know it thus far.

read the rest > http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/travel/26personal.html?adxnnl=1&ref=dining&adxnnlx=1241010011-UEStOwkme56lhbiPsY55kQ

Facebook Backer Wishes Women Couldn't Vote

Peter Thiel, foremost among Silicon Valley's loopy libertarians and the first outside investor in Facebook, has written an essay declaring that the country went to hell as soon as women won the right to vote.

Thiel is the former CEO of PayPal who now runs the $2 billion hedge fund Clarium Capital and a venture-capital firm called the Founders Fund. His best-returning investment to date, though, has been Facebook. His $500,000 investment is now worth north of $100 million even by the most conservative valuations of the social network.

On the side, though, his pet passion is libertarianism and the fantasy that everything would be better in the world if government just quit nagging everybody. But, now he's given up hope on achieving his vision through political means because, as he writes in Cato Unbound, a website run by the Cato Institute, all those voting females have wrecked things

read here >http://gawker.com/5231390/facebook-backer-wishes-women-couldnt-vote
and here >http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/the-education-of-a-libertarian/

Golfers Test Limits of Good Sense in Golf Carts

The golf cart has always been treated like a plaything. Admit it, when you were 9 years old and your mom or dad asked you if you wanted to play golf, your first thought was, “I might get to drive the golf cart.”

They do look like fun. But it is amazing, and a little scary, all the crazy things people do with golf carts. The carts seem to bring out the devil in everyone — with some not-so-heavenly results. I’ve been tracking episodes and accidents involving golf carts for the past six months.

Why?

I don’t know, maybe because my father never let me drive his cart. But here are just a few of my findings:

read the rest here > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/sports/golf/27parmain.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu Outbreak

Federal officials declared a health emergency on Sunday, as they confirmed 20 cases of swine flu in five states, mobilized medicine stockpiles, and warned the public that the number and severity of incidences were likely to increase.

The officials urged calm, saying the declaration was largely meant to free up resources and precautionary in nature. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, appearing with other officials at a news conference at the White House on Sunday, compared it to the kind of alert that goes up before officials know how severe a gathering storm might become.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124074406381056693.html

Xerox Earnings Meet Revised Outlook

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 24, 2009
The Xerox Corporation met lowered expectations for first-quarter earnings Friday, but said slower spending on printing equipment and supplies continued to hurt sales, a trend the company projected to continue for at least the next few months.

The company earned $42 million, or 5 cents a share, in the quarter, topping Wall Street forecasts by a penny, according to Thomson Reuters.

That is in contrast to a loss of $244 million, or 27 cents a share, a year ago, when a litigation charge pushed the company to a loss.

Xerox said the global downturn kept information technology budgets tight and inventory among distributors thin. Revenue fell 18 percent, to $3.55 billion, from $4.34 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $3.54 billion, on average.

In a conference call with analysts, the chief executive, Anne M. Mulcahy, tamped down expectations for a quick recovery. “People are going to manage with less for some time to come,” she said. “We’re not counting on a return to the past in any way.”

Instead, Xerox has been cutting costs, looking to save $550 million in 2009 though layoffs announced last year and other expense cuts.

The company said in October it would cut 3,000 jobs and announced in March it was suspending its 401(k) matching plan in the United States, freezing salaries and trimming discretionary spending like travel and overtime.

Xerox also cut its debt load by $485 million in the latest quarter and planned to reduce overall debt by $1 billion this year.

The company said equipment sales fell 30 percent to $770 million. So-called postsale revenue, which includes the sale of ink and other supplies to companies that already own or lease Xerox machines, fell 14 percent, to $2.78 billion.

Shares of Xerox, which is based in Norwalk, Conn., rose 20 cents, to $5.94.

The Future of Housing: Think Small

A year ago, economists predicted 2008 would be a challenging year for the struggling real estate industry. The property market had just come off what seemed then like its worst year ever and signs of a recovery were faint. A year later, after watching property values plummet further, foreclosure rates soar higher, and home sales shrink lower, real estate professionals from Florida to California are now predicting far worse for an industry in ruins.

read the rest of the article here > http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/dual-perspectives/2009/01/20/Think-Small

Microsoft Quarterly Revenue Falls for First Time in 23 Years

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — For the first time in Microsoft’s 23-year history as a public company, its sales dropped year-over-year.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, on Thursday reported net income of $3.0 billion, or 33 cents a share, for its third quarter, ended March 31 — a 32 percent drop in profits from the $4.4 billion, or 47 cents a share, reported in the same period last year.

The company’s revenue fell 6 percent to $13.7 billion from $14.5 billion. Microsoft said its earnings included 6 cents of charges related to layoffs and impairments to investments.

Read the rest here >http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/technology/companies/24microsoft.html?_r=1&ref=business

Happy Earth Day - XMPie solutions help printer treat every day like Earth Day

Great Ideas for customer talk track on Earth Day.

Digital Color Imaging (DCI) of Akron, Ohio has expanded its work as a communications services provider to include that of an environmental advocate. The company, which provides print and Web-based marketing communications, knows that its business can have an environmental impact not only on its own backyard, but the world at large, and has incorporated a wide variety of technologies, products and practices to ensure its clients’ communications are impactful, but its ecological footprint is not.

One way DCI has helped its clients go green is by leveraging XMPie software to create personalized, multi-channel communications spanning Web, e-mail and print. Since cutting out paper all together may not be an option for many organizations, the company advises its clients on how to incorporate highly-targeted online methods of communication, along with the strategic use of chemical-free, forest-friendly print. This personalized cross-media approach has proven beneficial to both Mother Nature and DCI’s clients’ bottom lines.

“We have started to see the cross-media light bulb go off with many of our clients,” said Dave Welner, president, DCI. “They are thrilled with the idea that we can help them take a greener approach to business, while increasing their campaign response rates and profit margins.”

In addition to using PersonalEffect for cross-media, DCI has also implemented XMPie’s uStore Web-to-print solution. By leveraging uStore, DCI has helped its customers eliminate unnecessary printing, while making their printed marketing materials even more targeted and relevant, in addition to far less wasteful.

Long-standing DCI client Norandex, a division of building material leader Saint-Gobain, has nearly 200 dealer locations across the country and is a firm believer in using local seminars to educate contractors on the proper installation of its products. Before uStore, DCI would print generic corporate shells for the seminar invitations. The shells would be shipped and stored for eventual laser printing with seminar-specific information and then mailed to each recipient. With uStore, DCI provides an online site for Norandex branch managers to upload customer mailing lists, customize seminar mailers, print exactly the amount needed and mail to recipients. This solution cut down on printing and reduced shipping and storage resources and expenses. The program has been a huge success, eliminating significant waste while increasing branch participation from 15 to 100 percent.

Morton’s the Steakhouse tried to charge $2.50 for ice cubes

This is the craziest thing I have ever heard of in the food biz! Next we will have to tip the cooks.

Read the rest of the story here > http://www.insatiable-critic.com/Article.aspx?ID=1033&keyword=Desperate%20Times%20at%20Morton's%20the%20Steakhouse

Companies not cutting green IT spending

Most businesses are keeping up efforts to improve the energy efficiency of their information technology, despite having less available capital due to the slowdown, a survey by research group Gartner Inc. shows.

Gartner asked 620 organisations worldwide, each with between 1,000 and 10,000 employees, whether they were having to cut back on measures to improve the energy efficiency of their IT systems.

For most businesses, particularly in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, the recession will not reduce the priority of so-called green IT projects, the survey results showed.

The IT sector is energy intensive and contributes 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, about the same amount as the aviation industry.

Outside western Europe, some enterprises assume becoming "greener" costs money and could therefore lower this goal in their list of priorities in tough times, Gartner said.

But businesses are increasingly implementing such measures, mainly due to the potential cost savings rather than their environmental benefits, the survey showed.

"They are low risk, cost saving, and with short-term returns so why wouldn't (firms) pursue them? It's not surprising green project priority has held up quite well in recession as it is about saving money," Simon Mingay, research vice president at Gartner, told Reuters.

Forty percent of U.S., 58 percent of European and 15 percent of Asia Pacific businesses, which currently do not have any IT energy efficiency projects, said they were very likely to launch them this year.

More than a third of survey respondents expected to spend more than 15 percent of their IT budgets on projects to improve energy efficiency.

But the survey also showed that organisations in the United States and Brazil were the most likely to cut back on such "green IT" projects in 2009. It did not give a reason for this.

IT was one of the sectors most likely to scale down energy efficiency measures, according to the survey's results.

Only 20 percent of the European IT firms surveyed have budgets dedicated to improving the efficiency of their technology.

"One possible explanation is that in Europe green IT is considered 'business as usual' by many and does not require any specific special treatment," Gartner said in a statement.
Gartner expects businesses to continue to spend money on making their computers and systems more energy efficient.

"Over the past couple of years we have seen significant growth in spending motivated by increased energy efficiency. I would say this area will continue to grow in the future, rather than remain static," Mingay said.

First Time to Napa Valley: Must Do Activities

Take a Winery TourTake a tour that covers the entire process of winemaking from the vineyard to the finished product. Here are two that are among the best winery tours in the Valley and better yet, they are both free. How can you beat that? You just need to call ahead to make an appointment.
Click the link to read the rest of the article

New Yorkers order food as if they are spoiled children - WSJ

I love this article. It describes why I love NYC, why I love the food business, and why I cannot wait to be in the game again.


Good Grub and the Spirit of Capitalism

I recently spent a week in New York City, during which I ate no bad meals. Nor did I dine at outrageous expense. My wife was with me, and we had no checks much above $100 for the two of us, and many several dollars beneath that. Even in the plushest of times, I consider all restaurant meals $250 and above immoral, and will agree to be taken to them only by people I actively dislike.

We had two meals -- a lunch and a dinner -- at our favorite Italian restaurant, Cellini, on East 54th Street, which has grown-up male waiters who aren't waiting for a call to audition for a play, and where even the water tastes good. I had lunch with an editor at Molyvos, a Greek restaurant on Seventh Avenue that was a substantial cut above the innumerable Greek restaurants in Chicago, where I live. I had an unforgettable hamburger -- and you would think it fairly easy to forget a hamburger -- at O'Neal's near Lincoln Center. A former student took my wife and me to a recently opened fantastic Belgian restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue. And one night, not very hungry, we stopped for soup at Europa, kitty-corner from Carnegie Hall. Here, too, simple bowls of soup were high quality. Everything, everywhere we went, tasted great.

Read the rest of the article hear > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124000923947030623.html

$80 Billion Exaggeration - WSJ

Last week, President Barack Obama convened a health-care summit in Washington to identify programs that would improve quality and restrain burgeoning costs. He stated that all his policies would be based on rigorous scientific evidence of benefit. The flagship proposal presented by the president at this gathering was the national adoption of electronic medical records -- a computer-based system that would contain every patient's clinical history, laboratory results, and treatments. This, he said, would save some $80 billion a year, safeguard against medical errors, reduce malpractice lawsuits, and greatly facilitate both preventive care and ongoing therapy of the chronically ill.

Following his announcement, we spoke with fellow physicians at the Harvard teaching hospitals, where electronic medical records have been in use for years. All of us were dumbfounded, wondering how such dramatic claims of cost-saving and quality improvement could be true.

Read the rest of the article here> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123681586452302125.html#

“AlphaGraphics to Print Newspapers Digitally”

Digital newspaper printing continues to make ground with a new partnership between Newsworld Corp. and AlphaGraphics to print copies of the U.K.’s Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday for the US market. From the press release:

David Renouf of Newsworld says: “On the back of our contract with Associated Newspapers and with the increasing levels of interest we continue to receive from publishers, we are delighted to be partnering with AlphaGraphics, a best-in-class organisation offering second- to-none levels of quality and service. Similarly, we have taken the necessary steps to invest in the appropriate technology to ensure the requirements of our existing and future clients can be met.”
David Kovacs of AlphaGraphics added: “Newsworld and AlphaGraphics could not be a better match for this partnership. We are both focused on leading the market by servicing client’s needs with technology and customer focused solutions. I am sure others will be watching with anticipation to see where we are able to take this venture. Marrying Newsworld’s vision and experience with our operational excellence was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

As Renouf noted in his comment, Newsworld signed a four-year contract earlier this year with Associated Newspapers Ltd. to print copies of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday in New York.

Digital Print: The Next Frontier for Newspapers?

There’s been a lot of discussion on The Digital Nirvana about the ways digital printing is currently being used for newspaper production, as well as some future applications. While there’s no doubt that the ways of which people consume news and information is changing, it’s also clear that some new business model concepts for newspapers are still utilizing print as a main distribution method. Two hybrid models that come to mind include the previously-mentioned Printcasting, as well as a start-up called The Printed Blog. Each relies on reader-generated content, news aggregation, localized/targeted advertising, and (of course) print.

InfoTrends recently conducted an extensive study to understand present and future digital print applications within the newspaper industry. The result of our research can be summed up in The Emerging Digital Printing Opportunity in Newspaper Publishing, which details:

- An overview of the newspaper industry
- Current newspaper production workflow
- The case for moving to digital newspaper production
- Existing and future applications of digital newspaper production
- Adoption challenges (hardware, software, and recycling considerations)
- Recommendations for greater digital print adoption with newspaper

As existing newspaper publishers think about new ways to bring back print advertising dollars, they need to look not only at online models, but also how they can differentiate their print offerings. Digital printing can be utilized not only as a means for short-run production, but also for personalized content and targeted advertising. One of the things that we found when talking with some newspaper publishers is that there’s a lack of awareness about the possibilities that digital printing can offer to newspaper production. Market education is key. Reports like this one, as well as digital printing hardware vendors providing clear proof-of-concept applications and case studies of digital newspaper production successes can give a glimpse to newspaper publishers about new opportunities they can take advantage of.

Feel the Sqeeze? United Airlines to charge extra if you don't fit

Starting today, United Airlines has a new policy. If you can't fit into a single seat, you need to buy another one or stay behind.

In order to fly for no extra charge, passengers now have to be able to sit in a single seat, buckle their seat belt (with an extender) and put the arm rests down. If you can't do this, you're going to need to buy another ticket — unless there is already a seat available with another open seat next to it.

Here's the official word from United:
For the comfort and well-being of all customers aboard United flights, we have aligned with other major airlines' seating policies relating to passengers who: are unable to fit into a single seat in the ticketed cabin;are unable to properly buckle the seatbelt using a single seatbelt extender; and/orare unable to put the seat's armrests down when seated.

Any customer ticketed on a United or United Express flight and meeting one or more of these criteria must either purchase a ticket for an additional seat, or purchase an upgrade to a cabin with seats that address the above-listed scenarios. The seat purchase or upgrade must be completed for each leg of the itinerary. If a customer meeting any of the above-listed criteria decides not to upgrade or purchase a ticket for an additional seat, he or she will not be permitted to board the flight.

This policy applies to tickets purchased on or after March 4, 2009, for travel on or after April 15, 2009.

Please understand that we care a great deal about all of our customers' well-being, and we have implemented this policy to help ensure that everyone's travel experiences with United are comfortable and pleasant.