Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:49:32 GMT

New Blog Deals With Crisis

It is truly a sign of the times; I recently received a comment from Malcolm Milburn on my post titled The Screws Tighten.

Malcolm writes that he has become so concerned over the financial crisis - which I call a depression - and its impact on the game of golf that he has created a blog dealing specifically with that subject.

I applaud him. If you read his bio, you will note that Malcolm is earning a double major in Business Administration and Accounting. He says he's hoping to land a job with an investment bank on graduation "if any remain of course".

He is apparently also a realist, something that is still sorely lacking in the investment community despite what is happening daily; if I read of one more portfolio manager recommending that now is the time to put money in equities, I will puke.

Malcolm's blog is extremely well written and insightful.

And I'm sure he hopes it will be a short-lived venture. Posted by: Chris Henry      Read more     Source

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:49:26 GMT

Will Work For Travel: A Sosauce Internship

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 4916707 Sosauce is offering a unique internship that will sponsor young people to travel abroad & participate in cause-oriented work.

It is an eight-week summer marketing internship that upon its completion will also make you eligible for a two-week travel experience. During this travel period you will volunteer with and document a social or environmental issue.

Application deadline is on April 17, 2009.

Find out more at Sosauce. Posted by: Gloria Gamat      Read more     Source

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:37:37 GMT

New Zealand's Wine Country

It's been a few years since I've been to New Zealand. I spent a few days in Auckland once and was blessed to be allowed to spend Christmas with a Maori family near Napier. Some of the family's men swam out into the bay to get fresh abalone for Christmas dinner....

Chang-rae Lee has a good article online at the moment about New Zealand's vineyards. The article describes New Zealand as having "the most lush, grape-heavy vineyards this side of Bordeaux." It's a long article (six very full pages) but well worth the read. I enjoyed it.

You can read it here.


Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 4991363 Posted by: Greg Cruey      Read more     Source

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:25:08 GMT

Airline Meals

Airline Meals has over 7000 pictures, showing meals and full meal details from up to 350 different airlines, sent in by travellers from every corner of the world.

First class meals, business class meals, economy class meals, but also crew meals, vegetarian meals, gluten free meals, children"s meals, or just a bag of peanuts. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:01:19 GMT

Toronto Diary

Toronto event listings for the weekend of January 10 + 11, 2009:

SATURDAY
1. No Pants 2K9
Toronto joins 24 international cities and drops its drawers on the subway. If you don"t mind showin" a lil" skin, then join the crowd. But before you do, please read the instructions, and leave your cameras, laughter, and news reporter friends at home.
TTC.
OTHER / 3pm / free / website Posted by: Connie      Read more     Source

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:20:57 GMT

Jackson Wyoming - in February

Concierge.com has an interesting tip on finding luxury on a budget. Consider Jackson, Wyoming in February.

You'd think it would cost money. But according to Concierge.com, the ski resorts in the nearby mountain may be full, but the in-town hotels that cater to summer tourists are running specials in the dead of winter.

There's lots to see. Grand Teton National Park is just to the north and Yellowstone is north of that. The wildlife is easier to see when the ground is snow covered.


Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, chip phillips Posted by: Greg Cruey      Read more     Source

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:52:22 GMT

Airlines offer free seats

Are there lessons for other industries? Like, for example, the automakers?

Airlines are doing it tough in this environment so it was interesting to read last week of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia scrapping fuel charges and giving away 500,000 free seats.

Now Singapore's Tiger Airways is doing the same thing.The reason for all this is pretty simple: airlines are trying to bring back customers who have stopped travelling because of the meltdown. But it does make you wonder whether other industries go the way of the mobile phone companies and roll out similar models. Desperate times call for innovative solutions. This might be just the beginning. Posted by: leon      Read more     Source

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:14:01 GMT

Jacquinia pungens

I''m on vacation, so please accept my apologies for the brief entries. -- Daniel.

Thank you to Charlie Willis of Harvard University for submitting today''s photograph taken in summer of 2007 at the Centro de Investigacion Científica de Yucatán (CICY) Jardines Botánico in Merida, Mexico. Much appreciated!

As Charlie noted in his correspondence with me, the common name of this tropical shrub is cudjoewood. Jacquinia pungens was Cal''s Plant of the Week in mid-May of 2004, so head on there for a brief description as well as cultural requirements in greenhouse conditions. A comprehensive ecological description of the plant is more-or-less available (depending on whether you have institutional access or not) through Janzen, D. 1970. ">Jacquinia pungens, a Heliophile from the Understorey of Tropical Deciduous Forest. Biotropica. 2(2):112-119. Janzen notes that Jacquinia pungens has the uncommon behaviour of bearing leaves during the dry season and losing its leaves for the rainy season (a contrary behaviour to most tropical deciduous plants). He also makes mention of how plants protect themselves from herbivory: toxic compounds in the foliage and needle-tipped leaves. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:23:49 GMT

Religulous

"There is no arguing with faith," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "As the comedian and outspoken nonbeliever Bill Maher travels the world, interviewing Christians, Jews and Muslims in the facetiously funny documentary Religulous, you begin to wonder if there might be two subspecies of humans."

"Bill Maher''s one-man stand-up attack on religious fundamentalism is a dog that has more bark than bite - a skeptical, secular-humanist hounding of the hypocrites, amusingly annotated with sarcastic subtitles and clips from cheesy biblical spectacles." The Voice''s J Hoberman reviews this one alongside Allah Made Me Funny.

Updated through 10/3. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

August 27, 2008, 6:48 PM CT

Ancient Supervolcano at Yellowstone

The geysers of Yellowstone National Park owe their eistence to the "Yellowstone hotspot"--a region of molten rock buried deep beneath Yellowstone, geologists have found.

But how hot is this "hotspot," and what's causing it?

In an effort to find out, Derek Schutt of Colorado State University and Ken Dueker of the University of Wyoming took the hotspot's temperature.

The scientists published results of their research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s division of earth sciences, in the August, 2008, issue of the journal Geology.

"Yellowstone is located atop of one of the few large volcanic hotspots on Earth," said Schutt. "But though the hot material is a volcanic plume, it's cooler than others of its kind, such as one in Hawaii".

When a supervolcano last erupted at this spot more than 600,000 years ago, its plume covered half of today's United States with volcanic ash. Details of the cause of the Yellowstone supervolcano's periodic eruptions through history are still unknown.

Thanks to new seismometers in the Yellowstone area, however, scientists are obtaining new data on the hotspot.

Past research found that in rocks far beneath southern Idaho and northwestern Wyoming, seismic energy from distant earthquakes slows down considerably......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source