Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:21:12 GMT
Pict: Grandpa's Dog Tags
Via chain - This is my Grandpa's Dog tag from WW2. I was never exactly sure what his occupation was during the war. My father says he was a guard at a POW camp. Although I'm sure thats only a small part of the story. Grandpa died many years ago so there's no one left to tell his story. Maybe thats my job..
Posted by: Zinzi Read more Source
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:04:05 GMT
A greener SEC?
A coalition of interests, including investors are petitioning the Securities and Exchange Commission to force companies to come clean on pollution risks, reports MarketWatch.
Basically, the argument is that disclosing risks associated with climate change should be no different from disclosing any other risks that might affect a business's performance. And climate change, they say, could have a material impact on profits.
CFO.com reports that there are some accounting and disclosure rules that would require companies to be more forthcoming, like FASB rule FIN 47 which requires companies to show future environmental liabilities to investors.
"We need this because right now more than half of the S.& P. 500 are not disclosing their climate risk, which we would consider a material risk in this day and age,'' Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a coalition of environmental activists and investors, told the New York Times.
Posted by: leon Read more Source
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 05:33:43 GMT
Build Your Own Village
This online game lets you be the leader of your own village. Create your own virtual village and build your own virtual homes and businesses to go in it. Your
village on Travian will be a part of a larger virtual world.
Once you build your village you can wage war with other villages if you want. Or, if you prefer to be a peaceful village, you can trade items with other villages.
Posted by: Linda Roeder Read more Source
Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:24:35 GMT
Venice. Mad Detective
"Announced at the last minute as the 'surprise movie' in competition at the Venice Film Festival, Mad Detective is concise and artful," writes Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter. "It will appeal to movie-goers who like cop stories fast and furious but also complex and witty, especially as it mostly eschews the ultraviolence of many Hong Kong crime pictures."
But for Variety's Derek Elley, the film, also screening in Toronto in a few days, is "a neat idea that doesn't quite hit the bull's-eye. The first teaming of helmer Johnnie To and writer-helmer Wai Ka-fai since the 2003 Andy Lau muscle-suit drama Running on Karma, pic about a loony cop who solves crimes through intuition rather than logic is a typically high Wai concept that's still a rewrite or two away from achieving the rigor of a To movie. Despite some cherishable, out-there moments, Detective is a bumpier dramatic ride than usual from the Milkyway Image alums, signaling more cultish biz than recent To-alone pics like Exiled."
Posted by: dwhudson Read more Source
Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:22:24 GMT
Interview. Barbet Schroeder.
"There is plenty of violence and intrigue, but it seems likely that had Mr Schroeder pitched the project to a Hollywood studio, the story would have been dismissed as crazily implausible," wrote AO Scott in the New York Times from Cannes back in May. He'd just seen Barbet Schroeder's Terror's Advocate, a documentary about one of the most controversial - and mysterious - lawyers of all time, Jacques Verges.
"This was the most dangerous movie for me to make," Schroeder told David D'Arcy when they met in Telluride. Terror's Advocate now heads to Toronto.
Posted by: dwhudson Read more Source
Thu, 06 Sep 2007 01:41:00 GMT
GREATEST HITS - SEASON 3, EPISODE 21
Could this be Charlie's kiss good-bye? We'll have to wait until tonight's episode to see if Desmond's premonitions come true. The spoilers are out there for both this episode and the finale and I've been working my hardest to avoid the temptation to read them. Remember to keep the comments spoiler free so that we can all have the opportunity to partake in the show's revelations as they were meant to be enjoyed. Happy Lost Day everyone!
Posted by: Kim Read more Source
Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:59:04 GMT
Subprime meddling
As a breed, politicians never cease to amaze me. Short-sighted, self-serving and sometimes, just totally clueless.
A very good example is Senator Chuck Schumer's attempt to lean on the Big Four accounting firms about taking a less rigorous approach to mortgage accounting standards so that their clients can renegotiate bad loans.
Now, auditors are supposed to be independent gatekeepers and politicians should not be putting them under any pressure. We have all seen examples of what's happened when auditors forgot what their job was.
It's a point raised by Jack Ciesielski in The AAO Weblog.
"Maybe my memory is too long - but didn't we have a long period of self-flagellation over whether or not auditors were supposed to be independent of their clients, not very long ago? Here, we have a United States senator asking the audit profession to be a stimulus of the economy. What does the government want from the auditing profession - independent verification of financial reporting to instill investor confidence in markets? Or does it want them to shill for political policies because they happen to be situated at a convenient nexus in the financial reporting machinery? Let's hope its not the latter."
Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil is even more scathing.
"You see, management's job is to manage, and the auditor's job is to audit. There's also the decades-old requirement under U.S. securities laws that accounting firms must be independent of the companies they audit, both in appearance and in fact. Under the Securities and Exchange Commission's rules, that means the auditors, among other things, "must act in an unbiased and objective manner." Lobbying audit clients to change their business practices is the mark of a biased auditor, not a disinterested one .... Auditors aren't supposed to act as cheerleaders for the economy. Their job is to ensure that companies tell the truth about how well or poorly they are performing, so that investors and the broader economy can operate efficiently."
Posted by: leon Read more Source
Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:03:59 GMT
One of a Kind and Very Fast
Though I never saw this particular Ferrari race I did have the good fortune to be track announcer at Mosport when one of the fabled 3-liter Ferrari Testa Rossas was driven there by Pedro Rodriguez: I can still imagine the glorious saxophone-like sound of that V-12 as it wound out on the long uphill straight. So, in a way, I can relate to this 1962 Ferrari 330 TRI/LM, chassis number 0808, the only 4-liter Testa Rossa built, the last Testa Rossa, the last front-engined sports racing car built by Ferrari, and the last front-engined car to capture the overall victory at Le Mans. The drivers were Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien, the latter a gentleman with whom I also have some personal history, having been assigned by Porsche to escort the great endurance driver when he arrived for his first Canadian race.
Although its sports-racers in that era were by then mid-engine and powered by V-6's and V-8's, Enzo Ferrari decided to build the ultimate Testa Rossa for the Experimental category; hence the 330 TRI/LM in 1962. In 1974 it came into the hands of Pierre Bardinon, whose Mas du Clos collection staff restored 0808 to its 1962 Le Mans configuration. It was sold in 2002 to another owner, who offered it at RM's Leggenda e Passione Auction in Maranello, Italy, on May 20, 2007. The car sold for $9,281,250, the highest price ever paid for a Ferrari at auction, narrowly missing the record for the most expensive car ever to be auctioned. The 330 TRI/LM then headed for a museum in Argentina. You can read a comprehensive history of the car in the site.
Posted by: Philip Powell Read more Source
Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:36:10 GMT
Borago officinalis
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
Thank you to roselea@Flickr from British Columbia for sharing today's photograph (original titled “Blue” via UBCBG BPotD Flickr Pool). Aptly named!
Although native to the Middle East, the range of borage has expanded throughout the Mediterranean region and into central and eastern Europe, along with introduction to other regions of the world. Borage is considered a neglected horticultural crop by Nuez and Bermejo; the authors point out its relatively scant cultivation as a crop, despite its many food uses. Gernot Katzer adds more details about the culinary uses of Borago officinalis on his valuable Spice Pages site.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin Read more Source
Thu, 23 Aug 2007 02:21:03 GMT
Can Somebody Help Me Simplify?
My wife gets a magazine called Real Simple, which markets itself as being about simplifying your life. She seems to really like the magazine, but she doesn't dispute me when I say that it's strange how a magazine about making your life simpler can have so many pages. I told her if they really want to make life simpler, their magazine wouldn't exist, thus leaving us with one less thing in the world to read and a lot less paper used.
But I don't want to pick on that magazine. It's just a symbol for me of how hard it is to simplify. And it makes me feel a little better at my own failures to simplify. Simplifying is something I really want to do, but the world and my own personal desires are making it very hard.
I grew up with very little money & when I became an adult and got to a point where I made pretty good money, I had some desire to buy the things I didn't have previously. I wanted a big house, computer and electronic gizmos, nice cars, and I eventually got them. Not glorious riches, but plenty.
I've never gone overboard in spending on these things, so this isn't a sad tale of buying what you can't afford. Instead it's a tale of finding out that many of these things are a pain in the ass and I'd like a lot less of them.
But even more than the bigger things, it's the little crap everywhere that I want to get rid of but just can't seem to. Old clothes that I can't seem to part with even though I don't really want to wear them. Old furniture I won't use again. Gifts that I've been given that I didn't want and don't like but feel bad about getting rid of. Junk I've bought on vacations that serves no discernible purpose but was purchased in the fun emotions of the moment. Old hobbies I'll never pursue again but that still are hanging around, taunting me—yes, I'd love to play the guitar but how many years have to go by before I accept that I'm probably never going to have the time/inclination it takes to even get good enough to play a tune someone might recognize? My chance at sitting around a campfire entertaining young lovelies with my guitar skills and my thin yet attractively vulnerable singing voice has come and gone.
I'm trying to throw something away every day. I think that's at least a start. But then, without realizing it, I'll go somewhere and come home with something. I put that something down and it suddenly becomes part of my home. I don't want that bobblehead they gave away at the baseball game, but it made its way into my home because I didn't say "no thanks" at the stadium entrance. I didn't need that free T-shirt from a beer I don't drink, etc.
I'd like to get rid of the clutter because I feel like my mind will then feel less cluttered, which will make me feel less stressed and more successful. But it's really hard.
Can it be done? Or am I doomed to being a pack rat until the day I die?
Posted by: Justin McHenry Read more Source
