Read in the paper today that air fresheners in the home can be bad for you if they contain 1,4-DCB (dichlorobenzene). Apparently they reduce lung function according to an article in Environmental Health Perspectives. The stuff is found in air fresheners, toilet bowl cleaners, and deodorizers, so check the labels. Buyer beware.

If you get the chance and are in SW Virginia on the 1st of July, then you owe it to yourself to stop in at the Lincoln Theater in Marion, VA for a PBS televised live performance of Song of the Mountains. We went to the June 1st performance the other day and were greatly impressed by the talent showcased. One of the best musical performances I have been to in quite some time. Easily worth the $10 admission price and then some. The theater itself (one of only 3 remaining Mayan Revival style theaters in America) is worth the price of a ticket.

Health Insurance Insanity
Did you catch 60 Minutes this weekend? Good segment on how the uninsured truly get it socked to them when they go to the hospital. Not that that is new, but the difference in cost is staggering. I was just looking at a lab bill I got today which was $320. Had I no insurance, it would have been $320. But since I currently have insurance, the contracted rate with the insurance company is only $20. Yep, you heard right - $20! And since it is still early in the year, I'll have to pay that full $20, rather than the $4 I would normally pay later in the year after my deducitble is satisfied. $4 vs $320 for the uninsured. What a friggin' outrage. Senator Grassley is supposed to do something about this - maybe. Write him a note and tell him it should be a fair playing field for all. It's also quite easy for the legislature to forget what hellacious premiums folks must pay if they work for a small company that doesn't offer benefits. Most end up doing without any as they get older, simply because they can't afford it. And I thought Bush talked about how the small business was the backbone of the country? Well , if it is and that is where everyone is working, I feel sorry for them.

Another outrage? When you move to another state, you have to reapply for insurance and if you have some sort of illness of a serious nature, like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, etc, guess what? Yeh, you guessed it - no insurance for you. Sometimes you can get a conversion policy if your insurance company has such a thing, but it is very expensive with less benefits than you might have now with your current individual plan. Instead of a 5 million dollar lifetime benefit , you'll more likely get 1 million. Sounds like a lot, until you get cancer or something.

Of course the insurance company tells us it is all the hospitals and doctors faults and that we are leading poor lifestyles, blah, blah, blah. Yeh right - fess up , you and the docs/hospitals are all hosing us.

Looking for Job
Just thought I'd drop in to indicate I am actually alive. :) I recently found out that my job is disappearing along with my house. I had hoped that I would make it to retirement age, but it doesn't look like that will happen, so it looks like we're off for new adventures in the big wide world. If you happen to know of a wonderful job with full benefits for a 55-year-old guy let me know. I prefer jobs with minimal work and huge salaries, of course.

Have a nice evening! - Schönen Feierabend!

Have a nice evening! - Schönen Feierabend!,
originally uploaded by Buntekuh.

As seen on a Flickr photo site. Pretty cool cat.

Computers/PDA's/Smart Phones
Tired of pressing tiny buttons on your handheld to send a long text message or edit a document? Then check out Eleksen's new ElekTex Smart Fabric wireless keyboard . For pics head for Eleksen's site .

Our Educational System vs Singapore's
You know how we always hear about our kids doing worse than kids from other parts of the world in math and science? Well, Fareed Zakaria, in an interview with Thaman Shanmugaratnam (try saying that!), minister of Education of Singapore (rated #1 in global science and math rankings for schookids), points out that all is not quite as it seems.

"I asked the minister how to explain the fact that even though Singapore's students do so brilliantly on these tests, when you look at these same students 10 or 20 years later, few of them are worldbeaters anymore. Singapore has few truly top-ranked scientists, entrepreneurs, inventors, business executives or academics. American kids, by contrast, test much worse in the fourth and eighth grades but seem to do better later in life and in the real world. Why? "We both have meritocracies," Shanmugaratnam said. "Yours is a talent meri tocracy, ours is an exam meritocracy. There are some parts of the intellect that we are not able to test well—like creativity, curiosity, a sense of adventure, ambition. Most of all, America has a culture of learning that challenges conventional wisdom, even if it means challenging authority. These are the areas where Singapore must learn from America.""
http://www.fareedzakaria.com/articles/articles.html

But before you think all is roses in America, you should read the rest of the article at the link above.

Immigrants - Weren't we all Immigrants Once?

In this week's Newsweek, Anna Quindlan comments

"Explain to the smart little girl from Guatemal that no matter how hard she works, how much she cares, she's shut out of the big job. Explain it to the mother who lifted a listless kid from a crib in Siberia and now has a son who loves baseball and Fourth of July fireworks. Once they'be become citizens there's no way to justify the exclusion; in a country allegedly built on fairness, it's just not fair. Maybe one of the very best places to look for the presidents of the future is among the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. After all, as any religious person can telly you, converts often make the most passionate believers"

I'd love to see Anna come on Lou Dobb's show on CNN - now that would be a treat.

Quote of the Day
I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. Anna Quindlen

Browsing Tip
My brother reminded me that I could save an extra 1.57% of purchases at Amazon.com, simply by using the A9 search engine . All you need to do is browse there for a few days and then the next time you visit Amazon, you'll notice the symbol to the left appearing next to the word Amazon. Give it about 3 days to appear. Once there, you're good for that extra percent off. Can't beat that. It even works if you've gone through Ebates first - better yet

The Critics
Stumbled across a new web site that is worth bookmarking - Metacritic.com If you want the latest Movie Reviews, DVD Reviews, TV Reviews, Music Reviews, Book Reviews and Game Reviews, this is the place to visit.

Goodyear Viva Tires
For those of you who keep looking up Goodyear Visa tires in Google and finding this web site, well I can tell you that they lasted me about 40,000 miles on a '92 Accord. Their life came to an abrupt end when I slid my car into the back end of a van and totalled it. I wasn't going very fast, but the pavement was wet and when I slammed those brakes, I slid about 65' with no grabbing whatsoever. There was still tread on the tires , more so in the middle, than on the edges, but I think tires get less "sticky" with age, tending to harden and lose their grip. These tires are warrantied for 80K - sorry, but that's a pipedream. It's another reason it pays to keep your original receipt in the glove box, so when you head back to swap them out, you can get the next set for 1/2 off (or better yet, buy some Michelins - just not the Symmetry - didn't have much luck with that tire either). Next time I think I'll give Bridgestone Potenzas a try.

New Firefox Extensions?
Looks like there might be a new Peer to Peer extension forthcoming for Firefox - Bloggers appear excited over this new feature, believing it will encourage more and more folks to switch to Firefox. Read more about it in this ZDnet article .

If you're into blogging, there is also a new Firefox extension for that as well - "Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right within Firefox. Just hit F8 or click the little pencil icon at the bottom right to bring up the blog editor and easily post to your Wordpress, MovableType or Blogger blogs." You can read more about it at Performancing for Firefox . I haven't tried this out yet, but plan to.

Tech Tip
If you use a Palm Pilot or Pocket PC and use AvantGo , then you can automatically add RSS feeds for particular web pages you choose by installing the RSS feed link button in your browser toolbar. Then anytime you find an interesting page that you would like to have on your handheld as an RSS feed, you just click on the button. Next time you sync with your PDA, the new feed is installed in the AvantGo section of your PDA. Slick. You can find the button and the simple instructions for adding it to your browser at AvantGo Autochannel for RSS . (link may only work if you are signed up at AvantGo - a quick simple and free procedure.)

Live Bookmarks in Firefox
Want to know how to set up "Live Bookmarks" in Firefox? Here's a handy tutorial.

Word of the Day
Cloture - A parliamentary procedure by which debate is ended and an immediate vote is taken on the matter under discussion. Also called closure. French clôture, from Old French closture, probably alteration of closure, closure "Only 52 Senators voted for cloture, well short of the 60 needed to cut off debate.."