For many college students, a new relationship isn't real until it's on Facebook.
Thanks to the main page's "news feed," which keeps tabs on everyone a user has listed as a friend, users can see every change their friends have made to their account, including up-to-the-minute reports on whether couples are still together.
Chris Neal, 20, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said listing relationships online solidifies the commitment.
When it's listed on Facebook "it's public knowledge," he said. "Guys won't try to come get with a girl in a relationship and girls won't come to get with a guy. It's like marking your territory."
Neal, along with Taikein Cooper, 19, a fellow sophomore at the UNC-Chapel Hill, started the Facebook group "If your relationship isn't listed on Facebook...it doesn't count!" almost a year ago as an inside joke.
"You got a Facebook and it's not on there, then it's not official," he said.
Cooper echoes: "If you want him or her to be exclusive then you need to put it out there."
read more digg story
29 March 2008
It’s Not Getting Any Colder
You bought a hybrid. That's swell. Now how about we all get down to business?
We've made more political progress on environmental issues this year than in the previous 20. Al Gore won the Nobel. The hipster band Guster is on board.
But it's still a crisis. Global warming is the biggest thing we've ever done to the earth, and the news from science is getting worse at least as fast as the news from politics is improving. Dealing with it is going to take more than getting your tail in a Prius—it will even take more than getting the respective tails of Alicia Silverstone, Dr. Andrew Weil, Billy Crystal, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Donny Osmond, Ed Begley, Harrison Ford, Kevin Bacon, Kirk Douglas, Dr. Oliver Sacks, and Robin Williams into Priuses.
In fact, if you want to be realistic—which in my experience increases your chances of being right—the only question is what kind of a crisis we're talking about: the nasty kind you get through or the nasty kind you don't get through.
The first kind—bad but bearable—can seem impossible when contemplated from a distance. Like divorce: impossible enough that people do all they can to avoid it. But then you're sucked out of the smooth water and into the rapids and you're no longer contemplating something dauntingly large; you're just handling the details as they come roaring at you: court dates, separate apartments, garnishments, weekend-visitation rights. It's not fun, but half the country has been through a divorce. You deal, and eventually you're out the other side, maybe chastened, maybe poorer, definitely different, but still intact.
Global warming might work out like that. We've spent two decades hoping it would get better on its own, but now, pretty clearly, we're going to start doing something. New technologies are coming online faster than we could have hoped, and political attitudes are starting to change, too. Lightbulbs, carbon taxes, international treaties: We're in the process of rolling up our sleeves, and any minute now we're actually going to get at it—and then it's going to be OK, yes? Things will be different, but different is good, right?
HERE'S THE BEST CASE: The U.S. breaks its political logjam and passes ambitious caps on carbon, pledging to reduce emissions quickly and dramatically. This reconfigures economic gravity, so that money now flows toward the sun and wind and insulation, not coal. That money starts producing engineering breakthroughs, lowering the price of everything from solar panels to plug-in hybrids so rapidly that the technologies spread as quickly as, say, the Wii Remote.
Meanwhile, seeing that rapid change is possible, we in the rich world rise to our obligations and embark on a kind of global Marshall Plan to deploy the same new gear all over the world, allowing China and India and everyone else to develop without burning their coal. Meanwhile, we make noble changes in our habits—the rising price of gas leads to the demand for decent mass transit, and once the bus is there we actually decide to, you know, take it. We become less American, more European, and we encourage the developing world to aspire to Oslo and not Orange County.
Oh, and the earth responds. Seeing our good intentions and rapid progress, nature backs off a little. Sea levels rise in inches, not feet. We build some levees and we evacuate some low-lying Pacific atolls. It could happen. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that noble band of climate experts, calculated last spring that we could build all the technology we needed to hold carbon emissions down at an eminently reasonable cost; in the next 20 years it would knock about one 12th of 1 percent off gross world product annually. As The Economist, that Trotskyite rag, put it, "The world would hardly notice."
But then there's the other kind of crisis, the one that begins with the Very Concerned Doctor sitting down across from you. And now we're talking about a different kind of regimen. The changes aren't just daunting; they're damaging—technicians are X-ing targets on your body with grease pencil and your hair is falling out. A lump in one place turns into a shadow in a dozen others, and the "treatments" start seeming very nearly as bad as the problem, and your friends are scanning the Internet for news of new, novel cures.
If you were laying down odds right about now, you'd be hard-pressed not to lean toward this scenario. Late last summer, the sheets of Arctic sea ice began to thin at a markedly faster rate: There was a week when an area the size of Florida melted every single day. And the same kind of bad lab results were coming back from many different systems: tundra permafrost, temperate-forest soils, Amazon aridity. Small flare-ups caught everyone's attention: Wildfire blazed across a parched Southern California, drought dropped Lake Lanier so low that Atlanta started measuring its water supply in weeks. Worse than we'd feared, and spreading faster. There seems little doubt now that this century will be at least as tough as the scientific consensus has been warning: crop-threatening heat waves, rapid spread of mosquito-borne disease, the whole litany.
WE DON'T KNOW YET if we're facing type one or type two. But in both cases the actions are pretty much the same: We need to change, quickly and comprehensively. This means go ahead and screw in the lightbulb, but then screw in the new senator immediately thereafter. Big political action—in Washington, and then internationally—is the only way we can start snuffing carbon fast enough.
The difference comes in attitude. If you're dealing with a bad-but-bearable problem, it's best to be flexible, to compromise, to negotiate and arbitrate and mediate. This is what we're starting to do, finally. Congress is grudgingly raising mileage standards, and the international community at least met in Bali to talk about talking. Nothing to sneeze at. But if your back is against the wall, then it's time to fight. And by fight I mean out in the streets, as if your life depended on it. This is starting to happen—in the past year a few of us have organized almost 2,000 rallies in all 50 states. This doesn't take much in the way of money or a big organization. Just start e-mailing everyone you know and saying, "If you're worried, if you're mad, if you want to feel hopeful: Hold a demonstration." They've mostly been polite, even good-humored: scuba divers underwater in the Florida Keys, skiers descending en masse down the melting glaciers of the Rockies and Cascades. But they came with an edge, too—the demand, not the request, for meaningful action now. A demand that has begun to make some headway.
Six or seven years ago, I met the nonagenarian extreme activist Granny D, fresh off her cross-country walk to demand reform. We were both participating in one of the first protests against global warming on Capitol Hill. As we were being arrested and led away, she looked up at me and said, "I'm 91, and I've never been arrested before. I should have started long ago." That's known, I think, as calling you out.
read more digg story
We've made more political progress on environmental issues this year than in the previous 20. Al Gore won the Nobel. The hipster band Guster is on board.
But it's still a crisis. Global warming is the biggest thing we've ever done to the earth, and the news from science is getting worse at least as fast as the news from politics is improving. Dealing with it is going to take more than getting your tail in a Prius—it will even take more than getting the respective tails of Alicia Silverstone, Dr. Andrew Weil, Billy Crystal, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Donny Osmond, Ed Begley, Harrison Ford, Kevin Bacon, Kirk Douglas, Dr. Oliver Sacks, and Robin Williams into Priuses.
In fact, if you want to be realistic—which in my experience increases your chances of being right—the only question is what kind of a crisis we're talking about: the nasty kind you get through or the nasty kind you don't get through.
The first kind—bad but bearable—can seem impossible when contemplated from a distance. Like divorce: impossible enough that people do all they can to avoid it. But then you're sucked out of the smooth water and into the rapids and you're no longer contemplating something dauntingly large; you're just handling the details as they come roaring at you: court dates, separate apartments, garnishments, weekend-visitation rights. It's not fun, but half the country has been through a divorce. You deal, and eventually you're out the other side, maybe chastened, maybe poorer, definitely different, but still intact.
Global warming might work out like that. We've spent two decades hoping it would get better on its own, but now, pretty clearly, we're going to start doing something. New technologies are coming online faster than we could have hoped, and political attitudes are starting to change, too. Lightbulbs, carbon taxes, international treaties: We're in the process of rolling up our sleeves, and any minute now we're actually going to get at it—and then it's going to be OK, yes? Things will be different, but different is good, right?
HERE'S THE BEST CASE: The U.S. breaks its political logjam and passes ambitious caps on carbon, pledging to reduce emissions quickly and dramatically. This reconfigures economic gravity, so that money now flows toward the sun and wind and insulation, not coal. That money starts producing engineering breakthroughs, lowering the price of everything from solar panels to plug-in hybrids so rapidly that the technologies spread as quickly as, say, the Wii Remote.
Meanwhile, seeing that rapid change is possible, we in the rich world rise to our obligations and embark on a kind of global Marshall Plan to deploy the same new gear all over the world, allowing China and India and everyone else to develop without burning their coal. Meanwhile, we make noble changes in our habits—the rising price of gas leads to the demand for decent mass transit, and once the bus is there we actually decide to, you know, take it. We become less American, more European, and we encourage the developing world to aspire to Oslo and not Orange County.
Oh, and the earth responds. Seeing our good intentions and rapid progress, nature backs off a little. Sea levels rise in inches, not feet. We build some levees and we evacuate some low-lying Pacific atolls. It could happen. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that noble band of climate experts, calculated last spring that we could build all the technology we needed to hold carbon emissions down at an eminently reasonable cost; in the next 20 years it would knock about one 12th of 1 percent off gross world product annually. As The Economist, that Trotskyite rag, put it, "The world would hardly notice."
But then there's the other kind of crisis, the one that begins with the Very Concerned Doctor sitting down across from you. And now we're talking about a different kind of regimen. The changes aren't just daunting; they're damaging—technicians are X-ing targets on your body with grease pencil and your hair is falling out. A lump in one place turns into a shadow in a dozen others, and the "treatments" start seeming very nearly as bad as the problem, and your friends are scanning the Internet for news of new, novel cures.
If you were laying down odds right about now, you'd be hard-pressed not to lean toward this scenario. Late last summer, the sheets of Arctic sea ice began to thin at a markedly faster rate: There was a week when an area the size of Florida melted every single day. And the same kind of bad lab results were coming back from many different systems: tundra permafrost, temperate-forest soils, Amazon aridity. Small flare-ups caught everyone's attention: Wildfire blazed across a parched Southern California, drought dropped Lake Lanier so low that Atlanta started measuring its water supply in weeks. Worse than we'd feared, and spreading faster. There seems little doubt now that this century will be at least as tough as the scientific consensus has been warning: crop-threatening heat waves, rapid spread of mosquito-borne disease, the whole litany.
WE DON'T KNOW YET if we're facing type one or type two. But in both cases the actions are pretty much the same: We need to change, quickly and comprehensively. This means go ahead and screw in the lightbulb, but then screw in the new senator immediately thereafter. Big political action—in Washington, and then internationally—is the only way we can start snuffing carbon fast enough.
The difference comes in attitude. If you're dealing with a bad-but-bearable problem, it's best to be flexible, to compromise, to negotiate and arbitrate and mediate. This is what we're starting to do, finally. Congress is grudgingly raising mileage standards, and the international community at least met in Bali to talk about talking. Nothing to sneeze at. But if your back is against the wall, then it's time to fight. And by fight I mean out in the streets, as if your life depended on it. This is starting to happen—in the past year a few of us have organized almost 2,000 rallies in all 50 states. This doesn't take much in the way of money or a big organization. Just start e-mailing everyone you know and saying, "If you're worried, if you're mad, if you want to feel hopeful: Hold a demonstration." They've mostly been polite, even good-humored: scuba divers underwater in the Florida Keys, skiers descending en masse down the melting glaciers of the Rockies and Cascades. But they came with an edge, too—the demand, not the request, for meaningful action now. A demand that has begun to make some headway.
Six or seven years ago, I met the nonagenarian extreme activist Granny D, fresh off her cross-country walk to demand reform. We were both participating in one of the first protests against global warming on Capitol Hill. As we were being arrested and led away, she looked up at me and said, "I'm 91, and I've never been arrested before. I should have started long ago." That's known, I think, as calling you out.
read more digg story
28 March 2008
Asperger's: My life as an Earthbound alien
One CNN manager recently learned that she has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism:
Recently, at 48 years of age, I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. For most of my life, I knew that I was "other," not quite like everyone else. Although having the diagnosis has been cathartic, it does not change the "otherness." It only confirms it.
read more digg story
Recently, at 48 years of age, I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. For most of my life, I knew that I was "other," not quite like everyone else. Although having the diagnosis has been cathartic, it does not change the "otherness." It only confirms it.
read more digg story
24 March 2008
Well, it looks like I might be out of a job soon.
Last year, the finance industry was responsible for nearly a third of all wages earned in the city, the highest in modern times. And each Wall Street job supports three workers in other sectors.
Analysts are predicting wider cuts across the industry, even among workers who had nothing to do with mortgages. A UBS analyst, Glenn Schorr, said the major banks had already cut 5 to 10 percent of their work forces, and he said he expected them to make cuts on a similar scale again in the next few months.
“It’s fair to, unfortunately, expect another wave of cuts as they batten down the hatches,” said Mr. Schorr, who covers several major banks.
That worry has been building since last summer, just after two hedge funds within Bear Stearns collapsed and the mortgage markets were beginning to freeze. Employment at securities firms in New York had rebounded since the 2001 recession and was nearing its all-time peak of 200,000 from before that downturn, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade group.
Since August, the financial industry has gradually shed at least 20,000 jobs, mostly among those selling loans, those bundling loans into complex securities and those placing trading bets on the likelihood that borrowers would pay.
Now the pace of job losses is increasing. Significant cuts at Bear Stearns are almost certain. Citigroup is in the process of cutting 10 percent of the work force in its investment bank, or 6,000 people. Lehman Brothers announced 1,400 layoffs two weeks ago.Goldman Sachs said in January that it would reduce its global work force by 5 percent. On Friday, The New York Post reported that the cuts would rise to 20 percent, which would bring the total cut to 6,400 jobs. A spokeswoman for Goldman had no comment on the report.
read more digg story
Analysts are predicting wider cuts across the industry, even among workers who had nothing to do with mortgages. A UBS analyst, Glenn Schorr, said the major banks had already cut 5 to 10 percent of their work forces, and he said he expected them to make cuts on a similar scale again in the next few months.
“It’s fair to, unfortunately, expect another wave of cuts as they batten down the hatches,” said Mr. Schorr, who covers several major banks.
That worry has been building since last summer, just after two hedge funds within Bear Stearns collapsed and the mortgage markets were beginning to freeze. Employment at securities firms in New York had rebounded since the 2001 recession and was nearing its all-time peak of 200,000 from before that downturn, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade group.
Since August, the financial industry has gradually shed at least 20,000 jobs, mostly among those selling loans, those bundling loans into complex securities and those placing trading bets on the likelihood that borrowers would pay.
Now the pace of job losses is increasing. Significant cuts at Bear Stearns are almost certain. Citigroup is in the process of cutting 10 percent of the work force in its investment bank, or 6,000 people. Lehman Brothers announced 1,400 layoffs two weeks ago.Goldman Sachs said in January that it would reduce its global work force by 5 percent. On Friday, The New York Post reported that the cuts would rise to 20 percent, which would bring the total cut to 6,400 jobs. A spokeswoman for Goldman had no comment on the report.
read more digg story
Beat that, picture of the Virgin Mary on an English muffin.
Attendance at a Buddhist temple in Japan has increased since the temple's pet, a two-year-old dog, has joined in the daily prayers. Conan, a Chihuahua, sits on his hind legs, raises his paws and puts them together at the tip of his nose.
read more digg story
read more digg story
23 March 2008
22 March 2008
He said what?
Panhandler on the F train: Hello. Many of you recognize me or my sister since one of us comes through this train at least once a day. I am collecting donations of food, clothing or money to help the homeless. If you have food or clothing, please put your money back in your wallet. I would rather have the food and clothing. I guarantee that by the end of today, we will have given away all the food and clothes we received.
I was at the other end of the car. I raised my hand so he could see that I had a few bills to contribute.
Panhandler, once he reached the other end of the subway car: If you happen to be attractive, please put your money away and stand up and give me a hug instead.
I laughed and put my money in his bucket.
I was at the other end of the car. I raised my hand so he could see that I had a few bills to contribute.
Panhandler, once he reached the other end of the subway car: If you happen to be attractive, please put your money away and stand up and give me a hug instead.
I laughed and put my money in his bucket.
19 March 2008
What Lloyd Blankfein thinks about
Lloyd Blankfein worries. True, as CEO of Goldman Sachs, he stands at the summit of the financial world. He just led his firm to its best year ever. But still, Lloyd Blankfein worries... "Some things will go bad no matter how good you are." In other words, Blankfein knows that Goldman Sachs, despite all appearances to the contrary, is not invincible.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
17 March 2008
Gooooooooo BEES!!!
A truck flipped on its side Sunday on a highway in Sacramento, California, and let loose its cargo of honey bees.
"There was somewhere between six (million) and 16 million of them running around out there," Officer Steve Merchant of the California Highway Patrol told CNN.
The bees stung cops and firefighters who tried to corral them. They buzzed toward nearby businesses and forced them to shut their doors. They prompted authorities to warn drivers to roll up their windows and turn off their air conditioning -- lest a vent suck in a bee or two.
read more digg story
"There was somewhere between six (million) and 16 million of them running around out there," Officer Steve Merchant of the California Highway Patrol told CNN.
The bees stung cops and firefighters who tried to corral them. They buzzed toward nearby businesses and forced them to shut their doors. They prompted authorities to warn drivers to roll up their windows and turn off their air conditioning -- lest a vent suck in a bee or two.
read more digg story
14 March 2008
Bear Stearns bailout keeps firm afloat
Shares of embattled broker plunge by as much as 53% after it says it will tap emergency funding from JPMorgan and N.Y. Fed in effort to fend off collapse.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
11 March 2008
Free Photoshop Alternatives
Photoshop is great but way too much editing power for the average user and way too expensive. Try one of these three free alternatives.
http://www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53-31682.html
read more digg story
http://www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53-31682.html
read more digg story
07 March 2008
death and taxes
I may never be able to retire. My 401K and personal portfolio has tanked so much in the past few months, I'll have to keep on working even after I'm dead.
06 March 2008
Stephen Schwarzman profiled by the New Yorker
Just goes to show that for some people, sometimes enough isn't ever going to be enough.
Stephen Schwarzman, former Chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group, has made himself an easy target for critics of Wall Street greed and conspicuous consumption. Schwarzman walked away from Blackstone's ipo with 684MM and a 24percent stake in the company worth 4.6B.
read more digg story
Stephen Schwarzman, former Chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group, has made himself an easy target for critics of Wall Street greed and conspicuous consumption. Schwarzman walked away from Blackstone's ipo with 684MM and a 24percent stake in the company worth 4.6B.
read more digg story
04 March 2008
Hipster or Homo?
The bf and I attended Poprally's DFA Dance Party on Saturday night.
Not being hip or gay, it's not always easy to differentiate between a hip gayster or a gay hipster. I just assumed everyone was both.
Gawker readers have a few suggestions on how to differentiate gayster from hipster.
read more digg story
Not being hip or gay, it's not always easy to differentiate between a hip gayster or a gay hipster. I just assumed everyone was both.
Gawker readers have a few suggestions on how to differentiate gayster from hipster.
read more digg story
The Other Liquid Gold
Forget the energy crisis. There's a crisis even more dire looming on the horizon, and Charles Wheelan, the Naked Economist spells it out for us:
There's plenty of evidence that the country already has water issues.
Much of the Southeast was in drought all fall. In the Southwest, communities have been springing up and growing at a rate likely to outstrip the region's long-term water resources, at least if swimming pools and landscaped lawns in the desert remain the norm.
Even in the Great Lakes states the water issue has come up. I recently attended an academic presentation entitled "Is Water the Next Oil?" The speaker made two main points. First, water drawn from the Great Lakes is often not returned there, causing water levels to fall. Much runoff and sewage drain into other waterways, such as the Mississippi River, and ultimately run out sea. More provocatively, she asked what will happen when some parts of the country have enough water and others don't. When Nevada residents realize that there isn't enough water to support the recent housing boom, will U.S. taxpayers be asked to pipe new water to them? (Midwest voters won't like the expense of it, or having "their" Great Lakes piped out of town.) Think about that one for a while.
Perhaps the United States will never face major long-term water shortages. If that turns out to be the case, then great. We won't have to agonize over how much water we're sending out of the country every time we export a watermelon.
read more digg story
There's plenty of evidence that the country already has water issues.
Much of the Southeast was in drought all fall. In the Southwest, communities have been springing up and growing at a rate likely to outstrip the region's long-term water resources, at least if swimming pools and landscaped lawns in the desert remain the norm.
Even in the Great Lakes states the water issue has come up. I recently attended an academic presentation entitled "Is Water the Next Oil?" The speaker made two main points. First, water drawn from the Great Lakes is often not returned there, causing water levels to fall. Much runoff and sewage drain into other waterways, such as the Mississippi River, and ultimately run out sea. More provocatively, she asked what will happen when some parts of the country have enough water and others don't. When Nevada residents realize that there isn't enough water to support the recent housing boom, will U.S. taxpayers be asked to pipe new water to them? (Midwest voters won't like the expense of it, or having "their" Great Lakes piped out of town.) Think about that one for a while.
Perhaps the United States will never face major long-term water shortages. If that turns out to be the case, then great. We won't have to agonize over how much water we're sending out of the country every time we export a watermelon.
read more digg story
When Adventure Tourism Kills
Uh T, is THIS what you mean about needing a vacation?
It's unclear what Markus Groh thought when he signed up for a late February dive that could put him face-to-face with killer sharks spanning 18 feet in length without a cage to separate him from the man-eaters. But the 49-year-old attorney from Austria, died on Feb. 24 after being bitten in the leg while swimming with the sharks in the Bahamas.
read more digg story
It's unclear what Markus Groh thought when he signed up for a late February dive that could put him face-to-face with killer sharks spanning 18 feet in length without a cage to separate him from the man-eaters. But the 49-year-old attorney from Austria, died on Feb. 24 after being bitten in the leg while swimming with the sharks in the Bahamas.
read more digg story
A HEXAPUS?????
Ha ha ha!English marine experts have laid their hands on an octopus that's missing two of its own: a six-limbed creature that they have dubbed 'hexapus.'
Ordinarily, octopodes have eight arms and legs. And should they lose one or more in an accident, they can grow the limbs back.Which is what makes 'Henry' -- as staffers at Blackpool Sea Life Centre in northwest England have dubbed their find -- so unique.
"If you look closer between the legs, there's webbing that attaches each of the arms together," John Filmer of the Sea Life Centre told CNN Tuesday. "You'd assume if he'd lost one of his legs in an accident, there would be space for an arm to grow back.
"But there's no space for two extra legs to grow back. That's just how he is."They named him 'Henry' because it alliterated well with 'hexapus.'"
It has also been mentioned in the grapevine that he was named after King Henry the VIII who had six wives when he should have had eight," Filmer, the centre's marketing director, said.
Until Henry, the most famous six-legged octopus was one that appeared in a 1955 B-movie, 'It Came From Beneath The Sea.'As was common of many science fiction movies of the era, the film was made on a shoestring budget -- and designers left off two legs from the creature because of budget contraints.
read more digg story
read more digg story
14 February 2008
He said what?
It is what it is??? Maybe he misremembered it.
Ha ha ha!!!
Listen to this NPR report of McNamee's response to Congress that "It is what it is."
Ha ha ha!!!
Listen to this NPR report of McNamee's response to Congress that "It is what it is."
1st annual trade gap drop in 6 years
Weak dollar helps bring 2007 deficit lower. December shortfall of $58.8 billion is narrower than expected.
Gooooooo...dollar?
read more digg story
Gooooooo...dollar?
read more digg story
He said what?
GM Vice Chairman calls Global Warming a "Crock of Shit."
read more digg story
Ccan someone tell him that temperature has been trending upwards since the industrial revolution? Perhaps it's not related to carbon emissions, but the globe IS and HAS warmed. Uh, helloooo.
read more digg story
Ccan someone tell him that temperature has been trending upwards since the industrial revolution? Perhaps it's not related to carbon emissions, but the globe IS and HAS warmed. Uh, helloooo.
06 February 2008
Loving my time in Bonaire
(The first picture is of me with Tonky Frans, one of the world's best freestyle windsurfers, and the second picture is of the week's ABK gang. For more pictures of my week in Bonaire, click here.)
I'm almost done with my week in Bonaire, and I'm sad to know that I have to go back to NYC soon! Compared to my week spent in Bonaire last year, I am having an infinitely more fun time this year.
I came to Bonaire last year with a bunch of male windsurfing buddies in their late thirties and up. I didn't realize what happens to men when they spend a week away from their wives and children -- all signs of domestication fade within the first day, and they revert back to the juvenile immaturity of their patheticly nerdy and pimply high school years. By day 2, I had heard the same pervy sex jokes a million times, but with different names and locations inserted (no pun intended). I had my own apartment and was content to do my own thing, so I was surprised to find certain members of the group got upset when they had to do things alone. They demanded that the group be their entourage at all times. The group, on the other hand, was surprised when I did not take well to being assigned the role of team secretary/mom/restaurant reservation maker/make sure everyone gets up and to the airport on time and chose to dine on my own some nights. By day 3, two of the men rooming together were not getting along. Their behavior had regressed to childish and passive agressive cattiness, and they tried to get other members of the group to pick sides in their little fight (which they never would acknowledge was a fight, because that would be too adult). I've heard men comment about female cattiness, but that must be because they've never gone on a windsurfing trip to Bonaire with a bunch of male windsurfers before!
After the drama of my week in Bonaire last year, I resolved that I would go to Bonaire alone this year. It's been fantastic! Many of the people I met while in Bonaire last year returned at the same time this year, so I already know a few familiar faces. I can walk into any restaurant and have dinner without worrying that I'll have offended someone, and I haven't heard a single unfunny pervy sex joke all week! Plus, it's been blissfully drama free without all the politicking backstabbing. I get enough of that at work, thank you very much.
So far this week, I've eaten at El Fagon Latino, Mona Lisa and Wil's Tropical Grill. Not too much has changed on the food front since last year. I still dislike Wahoo. My fave restaurant on the island is still Wil's (I'd gladly have dinner there every day while in Bonaire), although the Mona Lisa is pretty good. I had heard good things about El Fagon, but the food was a little too greasy for me.
05 February 2008
I made it into both footstraps!
Thanks to the ABK Boardsports crew, I FINALLY made it into both footstraps! I spent a week in Bonaire last year learning how to get on a plane and getting catapulted every 10 feet or so. I'm so glad that's (mostly) behind me, and I can focus on going crazy scary fast! :-)
(Yeah, that's me! Can you believe it?!?)
For more pictures of my time in Bonaire, click here.
(Yeah, that's me! Can you believe it?!?)
For more pictures of my time in Bonaire, click here.
04 February 2008
My first night in Bonaire, and I learn that it ain't over until it's over.
(The first picture is the view to the left of my front porch, and the second picture is the view of the small beach across the street from my apartment. For more pictures of my time in Bonaire, click here.)
I arrived in Bonaire early Sunday morning, having taken the red eye from NYC late Saturday night. I spent most of my day running errands -- rental car, groceries, and settling in. I had planned on going for a run, but by the time I had taken care of necessities, I was bushed.
I woke in the dark (since Bonaire is so close to the equator, sunset is usually around 6) and disoriented. When I realized it was already 8pm, I hopped in the car and headed to town. My apartment didn't have a television, and the Superbowl had already started! Lee's was airing the game, and I joined the throng of scuba divers from the sunbelt and midwest and the local med students from NJ and LI (Bonaire has two medical schools, St James and Xavier).
1. Why would an island the size of Bonaire have two medical schools?
2. Why would Americans come here for med school instead of going to med school state side? And, how come it only takes med students a year to finish a program in Bonaire when I have friends that take several years to finish med school in the US?
3. Should I worry about where my doctors went to school?
Lee's was awesome. During commercials, the bartender would jump up on the bar and sing and dance. Not in the Coyote Ugly sort of way (because that's not too awesome), but in the Elvis sort of the way (pretty awesome). I have no idea who Lee is, but even Bonaire had its very own halftime show!
At 2.5 minutes left to the end of the game, I decide to call it a night. I was still tired, and I was a little cranky that the Giants weren't going to win the superbowl. My apartment was a good 20 minutes away, and I had an early windsurfing day ahead of me.
Of course it never occurred to me that Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress would save the game, and it was just my luck that almost immediately after I left, Plaxico Burress scored New York's winning touch down with only 35 seconds to go. Naturally, I read about it online once I got back to my apartment. Go figure.
It just goes to show, the game ain't over until it's over. I wish I was in NYC for the celebration.
I arrived in Bonaire early Sunday morning, having taken the red eye from NYC late Saturday night. I spent most of my day running errands -- rental car, groceries, and settling in. I had planned on going for a run, but by the time I had taken care of necessities, I was bushed.I woke in the dark (since Bonaire is so close to the equator, sunset is usually around 6) and disoriented. When I realized it was already 8pm, I hopped in the car and headed to town. My apartment didn't have a television, and the Superbowl had already started! Lee's was airing the game, and I joined the throng of scuba divers from the sunbelt and midwest and the local med students from NJ and LI (Bonaire has two medical schools, St James and Xavier).
1. Why would an island the size of Bonaire have two medical schools?
2. Why would Americans come here for med school instead of going to med school state side? And, how come it only takes med students a year to finish a program in Bonaire when I have friends that take several years to finish med school in the US?
3. Should I worry about where my doctors went to school?
Lee's was awesome. During commercials, the bartender would jump up on the bar and sing and dance. Not in the Coyote Ugly sort of way (because that's not too awesome), but in the Elvis sort of the way (pretty awesome). I have no idea who Lee is, but even Bonaire had its very own halftime show!
At 2.5 minutes left to the end of the game, I decide to call it a night. I was still tired, and I was a little cranky that the Giants weren't going to win the superbowl. My apartment was a good 20 minutes away, and I had an early windsurfing day ahead of me.
Of course it never occurred to me that Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress would save the game, and it was just my luck that almost immediately after I left, Plaxico Burress scored New York's winning touch down with only 35 seconds to go. Naturally, I read about it online once I got back to my apartment. Go figure.
It just goes to show, the game ain't over until it's over. I wish I was in NYC for the celebration.
02 February 2008
01 February 2008
Killing of glamour model-bodyguard stuns Moscow
DUUUUUDE.
Anna Loginova was, for many Russians, a feminine icon -- bridging the glamorous world of modeling and the murky depths of Russian crime.
As a glamour model, 29-year-old Loginova often appeared on the covers of Russian magazines, scantily clad. She fronted advertisements for high-profile brands in Russia, like the German carmaker BMW.
But behind the glossy images, Loginova had another profession: She was an experienced bodyguard, trained in martial arts, commanding high prices to protect Russia's wealthy elite.
She was kind and sweet, not like a terminator, not like Sigourney Weaver in 'Aliens,'" said Igor Cherski, editor of Maxim magazine's Russian edition, which commissioned her last glamour shoot."But I feel that she was not afraid of anything. There was no fear in her eyes," he added.
It seems that fearlessness may have gotten her killed. On a busy street in southeastern Moscow on Sunday night, police say they recovered her battered body after she tried to prevent her Porsche Cayenne from being stolen -- clinging on to the high-end SUV as it sped away. The vehicle was later found abandoned.
read more digg story
Mark Zuckerberg Tells All About Facebook Finances
Yesterday afternoon on an open all hands call, the 23 y.o. founder outlined financials that more experienced CEOs might think twice about sharing.
Some highlights:
Revenue for Facebook for 2007 will be $150 million, as has been widely reported. But for 2008, Zuckerberg projected revenue to be increased to $300 to $350 million.
More interesting was the news that Facebook would spend $200 million next year on capital expenditures, which is a whole lot of servers.
By the way, more expenses, noted chatty Mark, those employee levels would rise to more than 1,000 in 2008 from 450 now.
And Zuckerberg also said the company’s EBITDA–earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and a number widely used by Wall Street as an indication of operating performance–would be $50 million in 2008. That means, the company would have a negative cash flow of about $150 million (EBITDA minus CapEx), rather than break even, as it does now.
Not that it matters. Zuckerman doesn't care about maintaining EBITDA anyway. Facebook collected $300 million in investments recently from Microsoft and other investors, which pegged the valuation of the company at $15 billion.
read more digg story
Some highlights:
Revenue for Facebook for 2007 will be $150 million, as has been widely reported. But for 2008, Zuckerberg projected revenue to be increased to $300 to $350 million.
More interesting was the news that Facebook would spend $200 million next year on capital expenditures, which is a whole lot of servers.
By the way, more expenses, noted chatty Mark, those employee levels would rise to more than 1,000 in 2008 from 450 now.
And Zuckerberg also said the company’s EBITDA–earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and a number widely used by Wall Street as an indication of operating performance–would be $50 million in 2008. That means, the company would have a negative cash flow of about $150 million (EBITDA minus CapEx), rather than break even, as it does now.
Not that it matters. Zuckerman doesn't care about maintaining EBITDA anyway. Facebook collected $300 million in investments recently from Microsoft and other investors, which pegged the valuation of the company at $15 billion.
read more digg story
The Age of Ambition
Today the most remarkable young people are the social entrepreneurs, those who see a problem in society and roll up their sleeves to address it in new ways.
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Klaber is one of A's good college buddies, and at 26, he's probably helped more people than I'll ever help in my lifetime.
read more digg story
Klaber is one of A's good college buddies, and at 26, he's probably helped more people than I'll ever help in my lifetime.
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.
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.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
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.
read more digg story
Score 1 for ignorance. 0 for mother nature.
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