30 January 2008

$3 ATM Fees? WTF???

Damn crooks.

read more digg story

Consumers who rely on ATMs for quick cash access may find that getting their money actually costs them more as banks raise their ATM fees. The financial institutions, which already generate $10 billion a year in revenue from what they charge people for accessing their accounts from other banks' ATMs, have increased the fees in response to a poorer economy.

Tiger's Julian Robertson roars again

Eight years after he shut down his famed Tiger fund, the veteran 'retired' manager is racking up the biggest wins of his life. Juilian Robertson has earned a stunning 76.7% return in 2007 managing a portfolio of his own money. Fortune gets an exclusive peek at the wall Street legend's portfolio.

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Fishermen 'beat dolphin to death'

Fishermen in Bangladesh beat a rare river dolphin to death because they had not seen "this kind of creature before," according to local news accounts. The fishermen then tried to sell the body of the Ganges River dolphin as a rare fish. When they failed, the men gave up and dumped it outside a museum -- where a large crowd tried to catch a peek.

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Score 1 for ignorance. 0 for mother nature.

25 January 2008

pro beer pong

I took this off of Mind-Ambition. It's Friday, and I'm bored.

24 January 2008

study says fighting with your significant other is healthy

FINALLY! That's what I've been saying for like forever. Take that, you annoying couples that "never" fight.

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Facebook removes Scrabulous, 9th most popular application

It seems that Hasbro, the makers of Scrabble, have succeeded in their trademark infringement litigation. The app boast well over 2 million users and over 600k active users! But now....it's toast.

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Why We Love

What scientists, not to mention the rest of us, want to know is, What makes us go so loony over love? The more scientists look, the more they're able to tease romance apart into its its individual strands--the visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, neurochemical processes that make it possible.

read more from Time Magazine digg story

If it's easy for a glance to become a kiss and a kiss to become much more, that's because your system is trip-wired to make it hard to turn back once you're aroused. That the kiss is the first snare is no accident.

Not only does kissing serve the utilitarian purpose of providing a sample of MHC [something about chemical makeup that you'll have to read the whole article to understand], but it also magnifies the other attraction signals--if only as a result of proximity. Scent is amplified up close, as are sounds and breaths and other cues. And none of that begins to touch the tactile experience that was entirely lacking until intimate contact was made. "At the moment of a kiss, there's a rich and complicated exchange of postural, physical and chemical information," says Gallup. "There are hardwired mechanisms that process all this."

What's more, every kiss may also carry a chemical Mickey, slipped in by the male. Though testosterone is found in higher concentrations in men than in women, it is present in both genders and is critical in maintaining arousal states. Traces of testosterone make it into men's saliva, particularly among men who have high blood levels of the hormone to start with, and it's possible that a lot of kissing over a long period may be a way to pass some of that natural aphrodisiac to the woman, increasing her arousal and making her more receptive to even greater intimacy.

23 January 2008

RIP Heath Ledger

HEATH Ledger was battling drug addiction and depression in the lead-up to his tragic death.

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no idea what the heck happened, and it doesn't matter. it's sad.

to all the haters out there who're pointing out the needless civilian deaths due to war and famine that isn't being covered by the media, i'll go ahead and acknowledge that that's sad too. yeah, the media has ADD, but it doesn't mean we can't be sad about heath ledger.

b's mom noted last night that 27/28 seems to be the age where a lot of artists seem to OD or commit suicide: joplin, cobain, basquiat, morrison, hendrix. it does look that way for musicians.

i'm just going to be morbid and link this to a list of famous people who died young, the age that they died, and how/why they died. RIP to those guys too.

Back from Costa Rica

I'm back in New York City.


The sunset from my tent.

I've spent the past week with the Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound School learning how to surf. We camped on an undeveloped portion of Playa Avellanas, a few steps from the beach and the water. I woke up to the sound of pounding surf every morning and knew that as soon as the sun rose, it'd be time for dawn patrol.


The entrance to our campground.


The view from my tent.

I'm a crap surfer, but I fell a little in love with surfing this week. There's something about sitting on the water at 6am and watching a good set of waves roll towards you. It felt right, like I hadn't a worry in the world. It was just me, my board, the water and the rising sun.

It's overwhelming being back in the city. After a week with no electricity, TV, iPods or computers, I'm a little overstimulated. There's too many people, too much activity and too much noise outside. I'm hiding out in my apartment today with the plan to gradually reassimilate tomorrow.

For more pictures of my week in Costa Rica, click here.

22 January 2008

Jim Cramer's Predictions for the Biggest Biz Stories in 2008

Normally, in an election year, you can count on the sitting president, even a lame duck, to prop up the economy with discretionary spending and tax breaks that give voters an incentive to reelect the party in power. That usually translates to a rosy stock market. But not this White House. And not this stock market.

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18 January 2008

he said what?

2am on a Thursday night at Manor:

"Excuse me, are you Vietnamese?" the guy standing behind me at the coat check asks.

"Why, are you black?" A question like his deserves an equally inappropriate response.

17 January 2008

S₁C₃R₁A₁B₃U₁L₁O₁U₁S₁ S₁U₁E₁D₂

Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous game from its website by the makers of Scrabble. Lawyers for toy makers Hasbro and Mattel say Scrabulous infringes their copyright on the board-based word game.

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14 January 2008

Hamptons share

Remember that guy that's always at every high school or college party but had graduated five years ago? Seems like every shindig's got one of those even when the party moves to the Hamptons.

I''ve been looking for a post-season Hamptons share so I can get in more fall windsurfing, and I came across this article. It doesn't just describe the types of men in the dating scene in the Hamptons. It kinda describes the types of men in the dating scene in NYC as well: older dudes trying to score with younger chicks.

When Boys of Summer Linger Till Autumn
By ALLEN SALKIN
Published: June 24, 2007
Hit the beach, party all night, meet girls. At a share house, middle age can be grueling.

Adrienne Matt, 38, a strategist at an advertising agency, said she arrived for her first weekend at a Fire Island house a few years ago to find it was being run by a man in his 40s, who had done his best to fill the rooms with “vapid, insipid women.”

“It was disgusting,” she said. “He ran the house only to have sex with 25-year-old girls.”

...

Stan Ellenberg, a lawyer in Philadelphia, was in share houses in the past, but now owns a weekend house in Margate, N.J., a beach town south of Atlantic City.

He says he still finds it easy to meet younger women in nightspots at the shore. “The secret is I never divulge my age,” he said. “It doesn’t work all the time, especially with women who are single and want kids. But if they’re in their late 30s or 40s, they don’t care as much.”

Some comedian lives in Ikea and makes CNN

http://www.marklivesinikea.com/

Prison vs. Work

It's my first day back at work, and I feel pretty ... un-liberated.

IN PRISON.. You spend the majority of your time in an 8X10 cell.
AT WORK... you spend the majority of your time in a 6X8 cubicle.

IN PRISON...you get three meals a day.
AT WORK...you only get a break for one meal and you pay for it.

IN PRISON...you get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK...you get more work for good behavior.

IN PRISON...the guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK...you must carry around a security card and open all the doors for yourself.

IN PRISON...you can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK...you get fired for watching TV and playing games.

IN PRISON...you get your own toilet.
AT WORK...you have to share with some idiot who pees on the seat.

IN PRISON...they allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK..you can't even speak to your family.

IN PRISON...the taxpayers pay all expenses with no work required.
AT WORK...you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.

IN PRISON...you spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out.
AT WORK...you spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars

IN PRISON...you must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK...they are called managers.

Have a good day at work.

03 January 2008

now that the holidays are over

it's time to clean up.

How to Write a Thank-You Note
1. Greet the Giver
2. Express Your Gratitude
3. Discuss Use
4. Mention the Past, Allude to the Future
5. Grace
6. Regards

02 January 2008

Spooky road trip

There are a few within a short drive from NYC.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/thumbnails/0,,20151524,00.html

Fail away

http://www2.oprah.com/spiritself/omag/ss_omag_200712_mbeck.jhtml

It's supposed to be healthy for you.

15!

15