If you get the chance sometime, tune in on Saturday mornings (9 a.m. Eastern) to CNN's Turnaround Show with Ali Velshi . He stops in for a few days with different folks who are starting up small businesses or have been established for a short time and want to turnaround their stores or businesses to achieve better results. He generally brings in an expert from outside to suggest ideas and to formulate a plan. Today's show was an interesting one with a guy who ran a Pet Supply store catering to the "elite". Quite interesting to see all the little factors you have to take into account to make yourself successful. I've alway enjoyed reading about business (probably why I subscribe to Fortune, Forbes, Kiplinger, Smart Money and god knows how many others) and sometimes think life would have been a lot more fun (and challenging), had I gone the small business route rather than plowing away at corporate America. It's never too late, eh? :)

Another show that used to be on CNNfn on a daily basis was the Dolans , which has now moved to CNN, since CNNfn folded (a shame, as it was my #1 financial show in the morning). The Dolans are now on only once a week on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. A husband and wife team (she seems to be the one with the most sense and he seems more the buffoon), they offer some excellent advice on all kinds of consumer matters and do it in a way that the average consumer knows what they heck they are talking about. They've been doing this kind of consumer/money shows a long, long time. Worth a listen. You almost always pick up something you can use .


Factoid of the Day

The patent for the Corncob pipe was granted today in 1878.

"Corncob" pipes made from maize cobs are cheap and effective, even if some regard them as inelegant. The cobs are first dried for two years. Then they are hollowed out to make a bowl shape. The bowls are dipped in a plaster-based mixture and varnished or laquered on the outside. Shanks made from Pine wood are then inserted into the bowls. The first and largest manufacturer of corncob pipes is Missouri Meerschaum, located in Washington, Missouri in the USA [1] ( http://www.corncobpipe.com/ ). Missouri Meerschaum has produced the pipes since 1869. General Douglas MacArthur was perhaps the most famous smoker of this type of pipe, along with the cartoon character Popeye.

Corncob pipes remain popular today because they are inexpensive and require no "break-in" period like briar pipes. For these two reasons, corncob pipes are often recommended as a "Beginners pipe." But, their enjoyment is by no means limited to beginners. Corncob pipes are equally valued by both learners, and experienced smokers who simply desire a cool, clean smoke.

Photo of the Day

I was recently in Asheville, NC and saw this decorative molding around a store window. Liked the spirals, the texture, the colors. Click on the picture for full sized image.

Wie Misses the Cut

A real bummer. I watched practically her whole round and at -4 with the cut line at -3, I was sure she had it made, but then with 4 holes left, she double bogied and it was like watching a pin pop a balloon. You could see the 15 year old then, although I'm sure anyone under those circumstances would have been really disappointed. She finished at -1, 2 strokes away from making the cut. It was great theater though and I'm sure she will be back - she is absolutely awesome for a girl her age.

Politics
I found it interesting to watch Tony Blair in his news conference today. You could see how he was trying to put a good spin on the G8 (and there were some good things to come out of it), but it was tough, because the big boys didn't really have the guts to pull it all off. They should have all been made to sit down and watch "The Girl in the Cafe". In regards to climate change, he remarked that without the USA, China, and India putting their support behind a plan, nothing was ever going to come of climate change. GW of course, refuses it for fear it will damage the economy of the US. It might hurt it some, but then I'd rather have a slightly ailing ecoonomy and still have a bit of air to breathe too, not to mentioin a tidal wave swamping me someday when all the icecaps finish melting.

Firefox Tips
Want to see larger text on a page? Just hit Ctrl and the plus sign to zoom in. Hit Ctrl and the minus sign to zoom out. Or hit Ctrl+0 to return to the orignal size.

Opening Tabs - If you click a link using the scroll wheel on your mouse, it opens a new tab. Don't have a scroll wheel? Hold down Ctrl and left click on a link to pen a URL in a new tab (or hit Shift and left click to open a new window, although why you would want a new window when you could have a tab, I'm not sure).

Wie off to hot start in round 2

Michelle has birdied the first 2 of 3 holes in her quest to make the cut on the Men's Tour. Tune in to the USA network this afternoon at 4 Eastern to watch her live.

Will Wie make the Cut?

CNBC will provide continuing coverage of the John Deere Classic at 6:00 p.m. ET Friday following USA Network’s live second-round coverage from 4-6 p.m. ET in order to show the completion of Michelle Wie’s round. The 15-year-old Wie tees off Friday at 2:48 p.m. ET with her round expected to finish at approximately 7:45 p.m. ET.

Wifi Theft
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Police have arrested a man for using someone else's wireless Internet network in one of the first criminal cases involving this fairly common practice.

Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pretrial hearing this month following his April arrest on charges of unauthorized access to a computer network, a third-degree felony.

Police say Smith admitted using the Wi-Fi signal from the home of Richard Dinon, who had noticed Smith sitting in an SUV outside Dinon's house using a laptop computer.

Guess this will teach folks to protect their systems won't it?


Today's Factoid
On this date in 1835, the Liberty Bell cracked while tolling the death of Chief Justice John Marshal, who had died two days before. The bell was hung in Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1753, and was rung when the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in 1776. First cast in England in the 1750s, the bell bears the inscription from Leviticus 25:10, "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

Michelle Wie at the John Deere Classic

Michelle Wie , the 15 year old female "Wunderkind" is making her first attempt at the Men's PGA tour in the US today. She is currently 1 over through 9, having just birdied the 9th hole and is in a tie for 52nd. Top 70 scores make the cut at the end of the day Friday. You can follow her progress through this real time scoring site . You can watch play later today on the USA channel from 4-6 p.m. This really sparks some interest in Golf - she's an amazing talent with one of the best swings in all of golf. " Fred Couples has also praised her, saying, "when you see her hit a golf ball ... there's nothing that prepares you for it. It's just the scariest thing you've ever seen."

*Update - Michelle finished round 1 at -1 with 4 bogies and 5 birdies on the day. Her -1 put her in a tie for 57th, but players are still on the course. A pretty decent day for round 1, I'd say, considering the pressure.

Web Site of the Day
Hyper History OnLine

New to Digital Cameras?

Canon has a nice site for those new to digital cameras (or cameras in general). If you've just bought a digital camera, it's worth a look through this site. Canon's Discover the Real Joy of Photography (Site temporarily down).


Today's little known factoid
Sylvester Graham - inventor of the graham cracker - celebrates his birthday today. (1794-1851). The graham cracker originated in the United States by Rev. Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister, in the early 1800s as a "health food". Originally made solely with graham flour, many modern imitation Graham crackers contain no graham flour at all, and are based on bleached, refined white flour, which the Rev. Graham implacably opposed.

His original "Graham bread" was the centerpiece of a vegetarian diet created with the intent of suppressing carnal urges, which he believed were the source of many maladies. He also warned that ketchup and mustard caused insanity. However, at the time he gained many followers who set up boardinghouses, in cities like New York and Boston, where his vegetarian diet was observed.

Graham crackers have long since ceased to be considered a health food, but they have remained popular as a snack food. Today, graham crackers are made with much greater amounts of sugar and other sweeteners than used in the original recipe. Cinnamon is also commonly added to graham cracker mix to enhance the flavor.

Graham crackers are essential ingredients for various popular snack foods, including moon pies and s'mores.

Fortunately, I don't eat many graham crackers so still possess a full quota of carnal urges! I suspect many older ladies will be secretly feeding their Viagra taking ol' geezer husbands this tasty treat after reading this. I do like ketchup and mustard, however, which does explain this blog.

Web Site of the Day

Mini Putt
(I had a 49 on the first try - good luck!) P.S - Watch out for #14 - it's a bugger!

Happy 4th of July!

Been busy with my wife's family reunion for the past 3 or 4 days, so little chance to post. I could post all the family reunion pics, but somehow I think that might cause a glazing over of the ol' eyeballs, so.....

Movies
Every now and then I see a little gem of a movie and the other day I was reading an article in Newsweek about an HBO produced film called The Girl in the Cafe . This was a splendid film - the acting was fabulous, especially the performance by Bill Nighy. It ranks right up there with the best movies I've seen in a long time. It sends a message about poverty, the G8 conferences, etc, but it is not just a message movie, and not just a character movie, it is more a melding of the two into a wonderfully crafted little movie. Loved it - watch this. You can catch it July 5th at 6:15 and 9:15 p.m. Eastern time. For a full schedule of showings, head to this schedule page . This movie is a good reason to have HBO - they do some of the finest work in television, not to mention film.

Picture of the Day
Two expert flat-footers in action at the recent Wayne C Henderson Music Festival at Grayson Highlands State Park in Grayson County, Virginia. Click on the picture for the original view and some more background on the picture. This fella even had a Michael Jackson "moon-walk" move.





Fact of the Day
Adams and Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was an anniversary that both founders were determined to live long enough to see. Death took Jefferson at 12:50 in the afternoon. Near noon, close to the time of Jefferson's death, Adams awakened from a deep sleep and with great effort proclaimed, "Thomas Jefferson survives." These were his last words, after which he fell into a coma. At about six o'clock in the evening, as the warm day turned cool, John Adams died. He was ninety-one years old.

Kite Runner

Finished this audio book today. What can I say? Read it - better yet - listen to it since it is read by the author himself (an Afghan, now living in the U.S). Not only is it a great story, but you learn some history of Afghanistan, the Taliban - this book is up there with Life of Pi, Secret Life of Bees,etc. You can the read basic plot summary if you look below in the posting I made earlier about this book. #3 on the NY Times Paperback Fiction list and listed now for 41 weeks.

Incidentally, I noticed that Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer, which I recently finished, was listed as one of the 10 best books for 2004 by the Times. Also on the list was Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton. That's my next listen. That's a long one - 37 hours.

Google

Remember that little Google stock that went public around $85/share not that long ago? Today it sits at $304.10/share. Are you putting a gun to your head that you didn't get in? I am.

Firefox Extension
For a killer Firefox extension, check out Scrapbook . How I missed this one, I don't know. If you do research on anything (health issues comes to mind. :), then this is a great tool.

Audio books

Thought I might mention that Audible has a summer sale of their audio books for $9.95 each. That's a steal, so you might want to check a few titles out. When you consider that John Adams is available on 37 CD's for $100 from Barnes and Noble, it's nice to know you can get it for $10 and download it to your Ipod, mp3 player, Palm Pilot or Pocket PC thus alleviating the need to schlep 37 CD's around

I recently finished Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fisher, read by the incomparable Nelson Runger . Great history book of the beginning revolutionary war battles, in particular the Battle of Trenton and the following battle of Princeton. One has to marvel at what these soldiers endured on that bitter cold, sleet driving winter night in 1776 while crossing the Delaware. How they made it across that river and then drug those cannon along icy roads for another 10 miles and then fought a battle humbles this couch potato of today. The book further illustrates how the tide could have easily have changed in favor of the British, were it not for Washington's strong leadership and a different mindset amongst American civilians of the day. It's hard to imagine how a hastily thrown together bunch of ragtag farmers, clerks and the like could defeat professionally trained armies, many with 30+ years of doing battle. Originality saved the day, that and a fierce determination to be free. Give it a try - impecabbly researched and the description of the crossing is worth the read alone.

I'm now halfway through The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein . Given a 4.7/5 rating by some 413 readers on Audible, the following descr iption sums it up nicely - Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara - a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons - their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers hope for redemption. This is turning out to be a very interesting story, one that is hard to put down.

Maybe it's time you gave an audio book a try? Did you know that truck drivers are becoming some of the best read individuals in America? More and more and descending upon libraries and checking out audio books for their cross country trips. If you're a commuter, you're nuts to miss this opportunity to fill up those wasted hours sitting in your car - I know, I used to sit in that 5 pm. Atlanta traffic - back then I always kept a book in the car, but audio would have been fabulous .
 

Wie shares Open Lead with 1 round to Go

If you get the chance, tune in to the final round of the Women's Open tomorrow at 3 pm on NBC. Michelle Wie shares the lead with a few others at +1. Rather amazing when you consider she is 15 years old and an amateur. She is 6'3" tall though and has a gorgeous swing, in fact Johnny Miller commented that it is one of the 5 best swings in golf today amongst all men and women golfers and I wouldn't dispute that after watching her.

It's a Sports Day

If you're a sports nut, then today is your day. Wimbledon going on right now - Annika trying to put a 3rd notch in her belt in chasing 4 Gland Slam titles in a single year(NBC - 3 p.m Eastern), the US Outdoor Track and Field Championships (4 p.m. eastern on ESPN), Indy car racing with Danica Patrick at 7 pm. Eastern. I watched some of the women's golf tournament yesterday - is going to get interesting since the course favors "short play" vs the long hitter. Annika loses her edge there and going into today is some 6 strokes behind, so will be interesting to see if she can catch up. I like golf but am no expert. I find it interesting that the women seem to lack the ability to put a lot of spin on the ball , so they lose the ability to hit past the pin and have the ball spin backwards to the hole. Instead they have to hit it short onto the green and run it to the hole, which often they failed to do or hit over the hole and watched the ball just keeping running. Perhaps an avid golfer could fill me in on why we see the women do this less than the men. I can't believe it is a power issue, as some of the women can hit driver further than the men. There are a lot of teenagers at the top of the leaderboard, so will be interesting to see how they handle the pressure of a big event (15 yr old Michelle Wie is only 2 strokes behind the leader).

I saw in the paper where Marion Jones withdrew from the Outdoor championships as did her husband, Tim Montgomery. Probably didn't want to be embarassed. Hate to say it, but I'm inclined to think their success came from steroids.

In a bizarre moment in Sports, I happened to read in USA Today where a volunteer official (and one with a number of years volunteering) at a Track meet was struck by a 16lb shotput in the head and killed. I've never heard of such a thing happening.

TV
Coming up in July (July 27th at 10 p.m Eastern), Steven Boccho who brought us NYPD Blue amongst other fine TV drama, will bring the Iraq war into our homes on the FX channel, as he follows a band of young soldiers into action in the new series "Over There". It supposedly will have the "real-life" aspects of war that "Band of Brothers" and "Saving Private Ryan" brought to the scene. If that is true, be prepared for some gripping television. So put July 27th on your calendar

A busy few days

If you've wondered where I've disappeared to, it was 30th wedding anniversary time, so the wife and I headed for Asheville, NC for a stay at a nice lodge and a few days touring old familiar sites and enjoying a few nice restaurants. Janet spied a 50% off deal on a $40 book ath the Visitors Center that got you 2 for 1 meals at many restaurants and some of the very nicest restaurants in Asheville. This slick move on her part saved us a lot of money over a few days - made it affordable to eat at some of the nice restaurants. Had a very nice dinner at the Boathouse on Lake Julian .

Took in a German movie at the Fine Arts Theater (english subtitles) called "The Downfall" (der Untergang in German), which outlined the final days in Hitler's bunker. Nominated for an Academy Award, it is an awesome portrayal of the final days in the Bunker, and in particular an incredible portray of Hitler himself by Bruno Ganz. (Goebbel's wife was one steely-eyed tough number, herself). I can't imagine anyone looking more like Hitler who could have played the part better. If you get the chance, see this movie. Up there with "Das Boot" and "Saving Private Ryan". You may have to look for it in the "fine arts" movie theaters.

On a brighter note, made our usual pilgramage to one of Asheville's finest arts and crafts gallery, the New Morning Gallery . They have added on additional rooms that display some incredible interior design talent. If you ever wanted a living room or bedroom decked out in an artistic manner, then you should come and look at these displays. Blew us away. Some great talent and artisanship on display here. Better have a fat wallet when you utilize one of these design themes.

Web Site of the Day
National Priorities Project

JiWire SpotLock

Tried out the JiWire Spotlock that I had mentioned the other day (see below), while I was sipping on a cup of tea at a Panera Bread store. Installed easily and was easy to set up. There's a free trial of this service through June 17th and then it's $5/month or $50/year. Puts your laptop behind a VPN (virtual private network), so you are then completely safe from hackers. Had a problem with getting it to run while Zone Alarm was running, despite configuring Zone Alarm the way they suggested. (I don't think Zone Alarm is necessary while this is running, so probably not a big deal). I sent JiWire a note asking them about this and I'll follow up once they reply. Was reassuring to know that someone couldn't steal your computer info and the price sure beats the hell out of Boingo's offering. Nothing wrong with Boingo, in fact I liked their service, but the cost differential is substantial. So if you're using your laptop at a coffeeshop, you should check this out. JiWire Spotlock Security

Photoshop Widow?

Photoshop is like a powerful vacuum - it just sucks you in and after about 20 years spits you out looking very much like a large white mole, as this widow will attest. Fortunately, I have not succumbed yet to this monster. Actually, I think you have to be intelligent in order to be hooked into this, so I have a built-in escape route. A good article for digital camera junkies.

Hot Outside? - Home Brew your own AC
Now ya gotta check this out. As my ol' buddie Loren used to say - "where there's a will, there's a way". Home Brewed AC

Web Site of the Day
Yub Nub - A (social) command line for the web . (a great plugin for Firefox users - can also be used alone - once you figure it out, enter "ath" w/o the quotes. :) After that has exhausted you , try entering "pon" Enjoy!

A serious challenge to wild Salmon

I was reading David Suzuki's web site today and thought I'm bring your attention to this serious issue involving wild salmon. A new study is confirming the dangers of open net salmon farming in British Columbia. The results - A definitive new study confirming that a B.C. fish farm is responsible for an overwhelming increase in sea lice on wild fish should prompt the government to immediately remove salmon farms from B.C. waters, say members of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR).

The results show transmission of lice from farmed salmon to migrating wild salmon peaked at an intensity of 70 times greater than natural near the farm and continued to exceed natural levels for 30km along the migration route. This amounts to a total contribution of lice from the farm that was 30,000 times higher than natural.

Environmental groups and other concerned community members continue to advocate for the immediate removal of open net pens and a shift to more sustainable forms of fish farming. Closed-tank systems address most of the disease and pollution concerns posed by open net cages.

“We have a small window of opportunity to reverse this damage – by removing open netcages and investing in sustainable, closed-tank technology,” says Ritchlin. “But this window is getting smaller and smaller.”

Makes you think about that next delicious looking grilled salmon dinner you're consuming in your neighborhood restaurant, doesn't it? Do yourself a favor - order wild Alaskan salmon from Vital Choice . You can't get a better source and you can cook it a heck of a lot better than any restaurant is going to cook it. I cook mine on a simple electric grill I picked up from Walmart for $25 - delicious and very healthy stuff.

Time for "Medicare for All"?

Paul Krugman comes out in favor of "single payer" or as Ted Kennedy put it - "Medicare for all" where the government provides universal health insurance for everyone. How is this affordable? Medicare has much lower administrative costs than private insurance. The reason is that single-payer systems don't devote large resources to screening out high-risk clients or charging them higher fees. The savings from a single-payer system would probably exceed $200 billion a year, far more than the cost of covering all of those now uninsured.

We need to do this one right. If reform fails again, we'll be on the way to a radically unequal society, in which all but the most affluent Americans face the constant risk of financial ruin and even premature death because they can't pay their medical bills.

We'll be on the way?? Heck, I thought we were there already! Who's gonna be the brave one to face up to the insurance lobbies though? That's the real crux of this matter. Check out Krugman's column for the whole story. I know from my own perspective that 20% yearly increases in my premiums are rapidly making health insurance unaffordable for myself, so this is an issue that hits close to home. Don't know if it really helps to write one's congressman/woman, but if there was ever a time, this is it.

Web site of the Day
What You'll Wish You'd Known

Wifi Security for your laptop

JiWire is now offering an inexpensive solution for those of you who are out and about and want to use coffee shops to connect to the Internet or send email. Most folks use these places with no security in place on their laptops (Zone Alarm and an anti-virus program are not good enough). For $5/month or $50/year, you can now connect through their secure network. That's a great deal, as Boingo costs $21.95/month. So check out JiWire's Security Solution !

Power - what Power?

Geez, looking at the stats from my UPS (uninterrupted power supply) for my computer, I notice that we have had 11 blackouts in the last week alone and some 40+ in the last 4 weeks. Gotta love that AEP (American Electric Power). Thank God I bought this UPS or my computer would have been toast long ago. I don't know what it is about living in the mountains, but the slightest bit of wind or rain will knock us out every time .

Danica
Well Danica found out what it was like to run with the big boys last night at the Texas Speedway. To her credit, she lasted the race but finished 13th. Think she is quickly finding out how mind boggling it is to be racing at 210 mph side by side to somene in a high banked curve. The slightest twitch on that steering wheel and away you go - maybe even to your death. She was wise to back off and find some cushion and get a bit more practice before involving herself in some of those hair-raising moments. It was an exciting race - with some very close calls, but overall no major wrecks and a pretty clean race.

Afleet Alex
Afleet Alex proved he was the horse of the year in the Belmont. Wow and then some! As they came around the final turn with Giacomo (the Derby winner) leading or close to it, Afleet Alex suddenly just shifted into overdrive and blew the field away to win by 7 lengths. It was amazing to see this horse just put it into a gear that obviously no other horse had -awesome display of strength and speed. Shame he didn't win the Derby as he is a Triple Crown horse for sure.

Web Site of the Day
Miniature -Earth.com

Danica Patrick on ESPN tonite

Another Indy car race tonite with Danica Patrick. ESPN at 7 eastern time. She's starting in the 3rd position, so she must have done well again in qualifying. History in the making - you might see her become the first woman to win an Indy car race!

Belmont Horse Racing
Post time at 5:38 Eastern for the final leg of the Triple Crown, although no horse won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, so no Triple Crown winner is possible, but Giacomo and Afleet Alex will duke it out once more and that's worth watching the race .