Bill's household tip of the week
You know how to make a vacuum cleaner last 20 years? Don't use it very much.
Thu, January 18 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
A clever bit of writing!
From NYT columnist David Pogue's blog today, a riff on The Village People's YMCA. He's blasting the Recording Industry of America Association for using lawsuits to prosecute low-level music pirates: “R.I.A.A.” (Original YMCA lyrics) Young man,You were surfing along, And then, young man,You downloaded a song, And then, dumb man, Copied it to your ‘Pod,Then [...]
Thu, January 18 2007 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
And the most e-mailed story on the NYT website right now is …
Help, I'm surrounded by jerks.
Thu, January 18 2007 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
I suspect she was a tourist
I did some shopping downtown today. When done, I walked up a certain major street on my way to College Street. A middle-aged woman is on the street. Her facial expression screamed befuddlement. “Excuse me. What street is this?” she asked as I passed by. “Yonge Street,” I told her (more to the point, Yonge St. [...]
Thu, January 18 2007 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
U.S. Congressional Democrats determined to act on climate change
There are at least four Democrat-sponsored bills on controlling greenhouse gas emissions currently before the U.S. Congress. According to this NYT article, at least one of them will likely become law. An excerpt: Many events have combined to create the new direction — forsythia blooming in lawmakers’ gardens in January, polar bears lacking the ice they need [...]
Thu, January 18 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
American satirist Art Buchwald dies
An excerpt from the NYT obituary: During the Cold War he marched alongside missiles, tanks and troops in a May Day parade in East Berlin. Another time, he rented a chauffeured limousine to tour Eastern Europe. He wanted the people there to know, as he put it, alluding to his plump physique, what a “bloated, [...]
Thu, January 18 2007 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Restoring Stanley Park
Here's a feature I did for CTV.ca on the damage done to Vancouver's Stanley Park by the horrible windstorms out there this fall and winter and some thoughts on planning the recovery.
Thu, January 18 2007 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
Is the Taliban's Mullah Omar livin' large in Pakistan?
A recently captured Taliban spokesman says that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of Afghanistan's Taliban, is living in Quetta, Pakistan (a known Islamist snakepit) under the protection of that country's ISI security agency. Some excerpts from the BBC story: The spokesman, Muhammad Hanif, made the apparent confession to Afghan agents who videotaped the questioning. Mr Hanif [...]
Thu, January 18 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off