one billion mazes

One of a billion.

Winston Churchill Quotes

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

"Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed."

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

"The Americans will always do the right thing...after they've exhausted all the alternatives."

"I decline utterly to be impartial as between the fire brigade and the fire."

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

"Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon."

Free for small business- from microsoft

Microsoft Office Accounting Express gives Microsoft new credibility in the small-business accounting arena—and it's free
Imports from QuickBooks and Microsoft Money. Fixed-assets tracking. Well-designed interface. Thorough, flexible customer and vendor records. Basic time tracking. Online banking and merchant accounts. Simple but adequate stable of reports. Great integration with Office, especially between Outlook and Business Contact Manager. Terrific add-on services and accountant access.
-PC Magazine review

dowload accounting-express

X rated cleaning products

Who knew scrubbing the floors could be such fun?

Sigmund Fraud

Playtime with your mouse

Go to this site and have some fun. Just keep clicking and dragging your mouse.
Click on numbers in lower left corner of screen for other animations.


http://yugop.com/

Remember the downtrodden among us at Christmas time

P.S. For those who don't watch TV or read People magazine, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are celebrities. Heroes are famous for their deeds, celebrities are famous for being famous.

Barbie in the Blender

Hate Xmas? Stick your kid's Barbie in the blender
By Lester Haines

Those of you suffering from pre-Xmas "bah humbug" syndrome, typified by symptoms ranging from mild irritation at the Yule orgy of capitalism, to the overwhelming desire to bring down Santa's sleigh with a surface-to-air missile, will certainly enjoy the festive offering from Will It Blend? - a website dedicated to testing everyday objects to destruction in a household blender.

Indeed, anyone who's ever wondered what happens when you stick a couple of Barbie Dancing Princesses in a blender can find out right here. It's not a pretty sight.

This Barbie carnage features in a series of videos called Don't Try This @ Home. Other objects subjected to the blender treatment include golf balls, a crowbar and, rather agreeably, an iPod.

http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe

impossible narcissists

How to Deal With Impossible People

We all know impossible people. They tend to share three main characteristics: They cannot be reasoned with, they believe they can do no wrong, and they are convinced that everything is someone else's fault. If you haven't had some first-hand experience in dealing with such people, even a brief conversation can raise your blood pressure through the roof. These people may also be known to some as narcissists. Here are some insights and steps for dealing with these highly difficult people.

excerpt-

4. Realize that you cannot deal with impossible people the same way you deal with everyone else. In some ways, they need to be treated like children. Give up all hope of engaging these folks in any kind of reasonable conversation. It will never happen, at least with you. Remember what happened the last fifty times you tried to have a civilized discussion about the status of your relationship with this person. Chances are, every such attempt ended in you being blamed for everything. Decide now to quit banging your head against a brick wall.


http://www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Impossible-People

Four quotes for the day

"We all are worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm."

Winston Churchill


"There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking."

Alfred Korzybski


"Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned."

Milton Friedman


"Coffee in England always tastes like a chemistry experiment."

Agatha Christie

Your money or your life?

excerpt from
paranoidbrain blog
Money is not a measure of personal value, it is a measure of interpersonal value. The way I like a Ferrari is probably almost totally incompatible with the way the balding CEO likes a Ferrari. We could spend all day trying to convince the other that our point of view is superior. The great thing about money is that it gives us a standard of measurement BETWEEN personal valuations.

It might be somewhat distasteful, but it is relatively straightforward to put a price on human life. What do you think life insurance companies do? Even better, you can look at the premiums people pay to avoid risking their life. Every time you choose between the safer alternative that costs a little more or the cheaper riskier option, you are making an evaluation of the monetary value of your life. That doesn’t mean your life (or anyone else’s) is not valuable in a unique way.

Remember the space age?

Blast from the past

"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
ANATOLE FRANCE

"Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge."
CICERO

"My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher ."
SOCRATES

nabokov on metamorphosis

Of course, no matter how keenly, how admirably, a story, a piece of music, a picture is discussed and analyzed, there will be minds that remain blank and spines that remain unkindled. "To take upon us the mystery of things"—what King Lear so wistfully says for himself and for Cordelia—this is also my suggestion for everyone who takes art seriously. A poor man is robbed of his overcoat (Gogol's "The Greatcoat," or more correctly "The Carrick"); another poor fellow is turned into a beetle (Kafka's "The Metamorphosis)—so what? There is no rational answer to "so what." We can take the story apart, we can find out how the bits fit, how one part of the pattern responds to the other; but you have to have in you some cell, some gene, some germ that will vibrate in answer to sensations that you can neither define, nor dismiss. Beauty plus pity—that is the closest we can get to a definition of art. Where there is beauty there is pity for the simple reason that beauty must die: beauty always dies, the manner dies with the matter, the world dies with the individual. If Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" strikes anyone as something more than an entomological fantasy, then I congratulate him on having joined the ranks of good and great readers.

Templeton Tenets

from the book -The Templeton Touch: Investment concepts:

There is only one long term investment objective, maximum total after-tax return.

Success requires study and work. It's harder than you think.

Buy when pessimism is at its maximum, sell when optimism is at its maximum.

Buying when others have despaired, and selling when they are full of hope, takes fortitude.

Bear markets aren't forever. Prices usually turn up a year before the business cycle hits bottom.

Popularity is temporary. When a sector goes out of fashion, it stays out for many years.

In the long run, stock index prices fluctuate around the Earnings Per Share trend line.

Buy what other people buy and you will succeed or fail as other people do.

11 ways to ride a dead horse?

based on Instructivist:

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, the educational establishment often tries other strategies with dead horses, including the following:


1. Waiting for the horse's condition to improve from this temporary downturn.
2. Passing legislation declaring 'This horse is not dead.'
3. Revising the performance requirements for horses.
4. Blaming the horse's parents.
5. Acquiring additional dead horses for increased speed.
6. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position
7. Commissioning a study to see if private contractors can ride it cheaper.
8. Removing all obstacles in the dead horse's path.
9. Taking bids for a state-of-the art dead horse.
10. Declaring the horse is 'better, faster and cheaper' dead.
11. Raising taxes (any excuse will do).

good tool for rough translation between languages

AltaVista Babel Fish Translation enables you to translate short passages of text or entire Web sites among 19 pairs of languages.

As an automatic translator, Babel Fish works best when the text you wish to translate uses proper grammar. Slang, misspelled words, poorly placed punctuation and complex or lengthy sentences can all cause a page to be translated incorrectly. Expect Babel Fish to allow you to grasp the general intent of the original, not to produce a polished translation.

To Translate Your Own Text

1. Type or paste text into the "Translate a block of text" text box.
2. Select the language pair from the list (for example, English to French).
3. Click the Translate button.
4. Babel Fish translates text up to about 150 words at a time

web cam

If They Only Had a Brain

The Naked Economist:

excerpt-

The main thing the Democrats have going for them at the moment is that they're not Republicans. That worked for the midterm elections, but it's no strategy for governing, or for winning the White House in 2008.

...........

The Democrats have no coherent economic philosophy.

Let's grant the Democrats the laudable goal of making life better for working people and the disadvantaged. Here's the problem: Most of the policies they propose for doing that lie somewhere between impractical and just plain wrong.

You can't claim that education is your No. 1 priority while pandering to teachers unions. Nor can you fight against international trade when the evidence is clear that it creates wealth and profoundly improves the lives of people in poor countries.

(And, in the short term, trade makes possible all those cheap goods at Wal-Mart that stretch the paychecks of the people the party is supposed to represent.)

Raising the minimum wage? Yes, it will make a lot of people better off -- and it will speed up the process of outsourcing and automation, which will make a lot of other people worse off. Raising the minimum wage is not an economic plan for making the nation more productive; at best, it's a transfer of wealth, and not even the most efficient way of doing that."

Czarist Russia

"I am rather screwed," he said. L.A. Times

A loan that'll get ugly fast
By David Streitfeld
December 11, 2006

EVERY day, Will Hertzberg owns a little less of his three-bedroom house in Corona.

Like hundreds of thousands of other homeowners around the state, Hertzberg has a mortgage that lets him choose how much he pays each month.

Like many of them, he always chooses to pay as little as possible.

For the moment, this allows the 56-year-old Hertzberg to continue living in his tract home despite being only marginally employed. But his debt is swelling, and his mortgage company controls his fate.

"I am rather screwed," he said.

Alarmed regulators recently have attempted to force lenders to cut back on loans like Hertzberg's. Even some industry executives are beginning to wonder how these borrowers will handle their added debt, especially if housing prices stay flat or fall.

If it turns out that many can't, it would be a major blow to the housing market. In the worst outcome, it could drag down the overall economy.

Hertzberg could sell now, but his lender would charge him an $11,034 prepayment penalty — money he doesn't have. Yet if he stays, the housing market may tank, vaporizing what little equity he has left.

"I made choices, and they happened to be the wrong choices," said Hertzberg, a big guy who lives alone amid the clutter of decades of memorabilia.

The real estate boom of the last few years has made it very easy to become overextended.

Czarist Russia

Czarist Russia

Hundreds of Georgians lost their homes Tuesday.

The Foreclosure Report:

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:

'Hundreds of Georgians lost their homes Tuesday. The houses, taken from debt-laden homeowners, were sold to bidders on courthouse steps statewide. Foreclosures in Georgia are up a stunning 99 percent in the past year.'

'The state now has the nation's third-highest rate of foreclosures: One in every 449 households. In October, that meant 6,895 properties were in the foreclosure process.'

'The taking of homes has always been brisk here because state laws are written for speed. Georgia is one of three states in which lenders can foreclose on houses in as few as 37 days. Foreclosures ramped up in recent months as once-low introductory interest rates on adjustable mortgages edged up, making monthly payments unaffordable for some homeowners.'"

Czarist russia

The Worst Investments You Can Make

When it comes to personal finances, there is plenty of information about what people feel are the best options, but rarely do you find information about the worst investments that you can make. Some of the worst:

Timeshare: Timeshares are often marketed as an investment, but they are one of the worst you can make. An investment is supposed to increase in value, yet timeshares typically lose 50% to 80% of their value the minute you sign on the dotted line.


Life Insurance: If you have talked with a life insurance agent, you've probably heard a pitch of life insurance as an investment. Insurance agents do so for a simple reason - it's a lot easier to sell an "investment" than it is to sell something that is only collected upon if you die. Life insurance should be viewed and considered for purchase for exactly what it is: insurance.

Tips From Unknown Sources: Whether it comes from an unsolicited email (SPAM) or overhearing it in an elevator, investing tips that come from someone you don't know will almost always be terrible. Since you don't know the source, you can never be sure of the claims being made. Which leads to the next investment to avoid...

Instruments You Don't Fully Understand: Investing in anything that you don't completely understand is a disaster waiting to happen. It's not that the vehicle itself is necessarily bad, but if you don't understand how it works, you don't know when it's time to hold and time to sell. You should always do thorough research before you invest in anything and know exactly how it works so you are prepared when decisions need to be made.

Jewelry: Sometimes jewelers will try to convince you that purchasing a bigger ring, a more expensive necklace or a higher quality stone will be a good investment. The fact is that the stones and jewelry purchased by the average person will lose value. Leave investment jewelry to the experts and purchase what you like for yourself, not as an investment.

Cars: One of the worst investments you can make is to borrow money to purchase a depreciating asset. Much like timeshares, a new car loses a good percentage of its value the second it's driven off the dealer's lot.

Avoiding investments that will hurt your pocket book is just as important as finding those that will help. No matter how much others try to convince you that any of the above is a good investment, don't listen and walk away. It may be one of the best investment decisions you ever make.

Perseid Aurora from my images blog

click image to go to image blog

Quotes for the day

"It matters not whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose."

Darrin Weinberg

"If you made a list of the reasons why any couple got married, and another list of the reasons for their divorce, you'd have a hell of a lot of overlapping."

Mignon McLaughlin

"When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it."

Bernard Bailey

(Is College Worth it?)

The Biggest Gamble of Your Life
December 7th, 2006

In 2005, young people (ages 18-25) in the US gambled $67 billion. Not in Vegas or online poker rooms, but on a betterment program called college. Their hope is that the monies they are spending will allow them to earn more money over their lifetime. Many are paying for this wager by amassing a mountain of debt that will take years to pay off. Is it a good wager? Conventional wisdom says so, but with $67 billion on the line (and that's debt accumulated in just one year by college attendees) we should have more than conventional wisdom or parental pressures to guide the way to smart economic decisions. REEF’s economic analysis shows that college is a financial mistake for more than half of the American young people today. Shielded from scrutiny in this transaction by an assumption of 'public good' are universities and college lenders who many expect to provide guidance to these young people. While the data hints at ways for some individuals to improve the odds of a positive financial outcome, half the people attending college should hear the frank counter-intuitive advice, "Don't go to college."

The analysis begins by assessing a college education purely as a monetary investment. Undoubtedly, there are other benefits beyond money to attend college, but it's such an enormous economic decision that it seems foolish to not fully understand the financial ramifications and use that as a primary factor in the decision process. Overall, college grads do have higher earnings than non-grads, but that's only part of the equation. A deeper analysis looks at the costs of acquiring that degree and the monies including interest charges which need to be repaid. (At the end of this piece is a complete listing of the data sources used and a walk through of the calculations.) Using a 40 year time career, here is the total return which look at earnings, college expenses and interest.


Initial Investment (college expenses)

$76,776 Public
$151,835 Private

Earnings Over 40 Year More Than High School Grad (subtracting out debt servicing)

$433,000 Public
$322,000 Private

Effective Interest Rate on Investment

4.42% Public
1.9% Private

full article from michaelrobertson.com/

Image from Art has Reasons blog

see more images

http://arthasreasons.blogspot.com/

disguise

How to Buy Nothing

WikiHow: " > Categories > Buying Wisely

Were self-checkouts invented so nobody has to see the useless junk you buy?
In O. Henry's classic Christmas story The Gift of the Magi, Della Young sells her most prized possession, her long, beautiful hair, in order to buy her husband, Jim, a Christmas present. The present she chooses is a chain for Jim's heirloom pocket watch, the only valuable thing he owns. When she presents her gift to Jim, she discovers that he has sold his watch in order to buy a set of ornate combs for her beautiful locks.

Is there a lesson in here for us? The lesson is you don't have to buy anything to be happy.

writing mortgages ... and selling marijuana paraphernalia on the side

The Housing Bubble Blog: “Merit employees proudly posted their résumés, plus photos of their luxury cars and drinking parties, on various Web sites. One loan officer had come to work fresh from being a Hooters Girl. Another solicited clients for two endeavors: writing mortgages for Merit and selling marijuana paraphernalia on the side.”

“Indeed, several Merit loan officers boasted online that doing drugs was a favorite pastime. ‘Let’s get hopped up and make some bad decisions,’ wrote one beside a photo of himself grinning broadly.”

“Former employees also said Merit regularly provided a keg of beer for some staff meetings, but Greenlaw said that, no, it was actually two kegs, and employees were free to bring in six-packs on Fridays. Asked about rumors of drug use in the office, Greenlaw said, ‘We just never checked.’”

Milky Way Over Utah

Fake friends for sale

Ted Samson:
Filed under: Friday fun

Are bullies over on Second Life kicking virtual sand in your face because you don't have hundreds of hot friends on your MySpace or Facebook page?

Well, here's some good news to pump up your deflated ego: A new service called Fake Your Space launched a couple of days ago that allows you to essentially rent some 'hot' faux cyberbuddies you can add as friends and who will leave comments on your page each week. (I should add that as ludicrous as this service sounds, it doesn't appear to be a hoax.)

How does it work? Well, first you get to browse through catalogs of potential male and female 'friends,' all of whom look like average, run-of-the-mill models and will undoubtedly blend into your existing Friends page about as subtly as a Carrot Top fits in at a Mr. Universe pageant.

Egyptians built Pyramids with concrete blocks

World - Times Online:

The Ancient Egyptians built their great Pyramids by pouring concrete into blocks high on the site rather than hauling up giant stones, according to a new Franco-American study.

The research, by materials scientists from national institutions, adds fuel to a theory that the pharaohs’ craftsmen had enough skill and materials at hand to cast the two-tonne limestone blocks that dress the Cheops and other Pyramids.

New support for their case came from Guy Demortier, a materials scientist at Namur University in Belgium. Originally a sceptic, he told the French magazine that a decade of study had made him a convert: “The three majestic Pyramids of Cheops, Khephren and Mykerinos are well and truly made from concrete stones.”

The concrete theorists also point out differences in density of the pyramid stones, which have a higher mass near the bottom and bubbles near the top, like old-style cement blocks.

New Photography Gallery

my new gallery link

cone nebula