CNN: The no-budget diners’ guide.
“Crickets and grasshoppers: First, pluck off the barbed legs, because they can chafe your digestive tract. Then, roast the body for a snack that’s both crunchy and nutritious.” Also, don’t miss the tips on munching your shoes.
NY Times: New Jersey Transit Seeks Higher Fares.
25%?!!! Only linked because I used to buy monthlies from Princeton Junction to NYC. And it cost over $300/month back in the early ‘90’s! 25%. I feel for ya, Joisians.
WaterSpace: H2Office.
Normally one wouldn’t think of mixing electricity and water.
Atlantic, McArdle: Toyota Drags Rivals Down With It.
“Toyota is a sort of desperate company right now. So it’s not surprising that they’ve rolled out 0% financing on many of its most popular models. Nor is it surprising that this has forced American automakers to follow suit.” Too bad they didn’t unlatch the financial coffers earlier. Perhaps their dip wouldn’t have been so precipitous.
Instructables: DIY Free Motion Cycling Rollers.
One of the best things you can do for your riding is to train on rollers. All the other riders in your pack will thank you.
Reuters: Republicans rip on Bunning.
“Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown said that Bunning was simply concerned about paying for the benefits package - but asked if he shared that concern, Brown said, ”I have to go,” and took a call on his cell.”
Discover Magazine: How to Build a $1000 Fusion Reactor in Your Basement.
”Your reactor will use a lot more energy than it produces. It is barely capable of achieving a detectable nuclear reaction, so fusion is one of the least hazardous parts of this project.” About as useful as paving a desert isle and constructing a drive-in. (One of my more brilliant ideas.)
The Atlantic: Paying Taxes: So Easy, a Caveman Can Do It.
”What if paying taxes were as easy as paying your credit card statement? That would be ... well, much easier! And it would be the future if Congress took up Sens. Ron Wyden and Judd Gregg’s new tax reform plan, which in addition to dramatically changing the tax code by eliminating subsidies and tripling the standard deduction, would also give the IRS the ability the send taxpayers a one-page statement to review and sign — just like you get in the mail from your credit card company.”
The Atlantic: The Great Grocery Smackdown.
“In the grocery section of the Raynham supercenter, 45 minutes south of Boston, I had trouble believing I was in a Walmart. [snip] The first thing I saw, McIntosh apples, came from the same local orchard whose apples I’d just seen in the same bags at Whole Foods. The bunched beets were from Muranaka Farm, whose beets I often buy at other markets — but these looked much fresher. The service people I could find (it wasn’t hard) were unfailingly enthusiastic, though I did wonder whether they got let out at night.” In this economy, the grocery that synchs high quality with low price will win out.
I’ll also make a plug for groceries that keep their produce ‘freshened.’ Too many times I walk into Whole Foods to spoiled or rotting veg — or, going off on a tangent, Trader Joe’s to find short-dated meats. [I live 20 minutes outside of town; having to return things ends up being a time-consuming, gas-consuming pain in the arse.]
NY Times: Bernanke Reaffirms ‘Extended Period’ of Low Rates.
“Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, signaled on Wednesday that he did not plan to begin raising interest rates anytime soon, saying the economic recovery would remain halting for months to come.”
CJR: When Government Acts Like Private Industry.
“Calpers was a big part of the notorious Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village purchase, which has the distinction not only of being one of the worst real estate deals of all time, but also one whose business plan was to aggressively dump middle-class tenants out of its apartments and raise rents sharply. Again, this is a government entity doing this, even if not to its own people.” As we know, when governmental bodies get desperate for money, ethics get hidden under a convenient trash bin.
And, Mashable: Google Adds Facebook Pages to Real-time Search. Note on this one, see last paragraph: “Still, Google’s stream doesn’t include public Facebook profiles, something only rival search engine Bingcan access.” Check your privacy settings, kiddies.
Circlebox Blog: Living With A Freelance Designer.
A lot to recognize in this. “A designer has deadlines to meet, whether they’re freelance or not, they will always have deadlines to meet and depending on the client, it can take up a lot of time to meet their needs. This can mean that they don’t have time for anything other than work.”
Atlantic/Business: What You Need to Know About Today’s Credit Card Rule Changes.
“Remember way back last spring when Congress changed the rules that credit card companies must follow? Most of those changes take effect today.”
Atlantic, Business: Secret to Happiness, Solved: Go to College, Move West.
“The Atlantic’s demographic expert Richard Florida poured through some data on his blog yesterday and concluded that the factor that correlated most highly with cities’ self-reported happiness was ... percentage of college degrees. Does that mean, as Catherine Rampell offers, that education makes you happy?”
Salon: Healthcare Reform.
“It won’t take a lot of investigating for members of Congress to see that these outrageous rate increases are common, and that the WellPoint increase in California is nothing more than business as usual for this industry, which values profits far more than the health and well-being of its customers. If everyone who has received a rate increase notice lets their members of Congress know about it, it just might give lawmakers the motivation they need to get reform passed.”
Atlantic Business: How Afraid Should We Be of the Debt?
“Large deficits should be thought of less like synchronized pantaloon-upkeep and more like a serious pain killer. After major surgery, doctors prescribe Vicodin because otherwise the pain could be unbearable. But the Vicodin supply is limited to a pill bottle, and it doesn’t come with the option to refill infinitely.”
Yahoo Finance: 79.9% interest rate?
“A national bank charging 79.9 percent interest on a credit card is legal — as long as the issuer fully discloses the terms as required by the federal Truth in Lending Act.” The Federal Government should set a limit, and usury such as this should be illegal.
The Obvious?: Buildings are a bugger.
“As I flit like a bee from one big organisational headquarters to another it occurs to me that such buildings add little benefit and restrict in the following ways ...” Read it. Longtime readers know of my ... erm ... difficulties with architects’ attempts to create usable spaces. I suspect it used to be the tyranny of graph paper, updated to the tyranny of AutoCAD. Architects really should do lifesize mockups of particularly difficult or trendy spaces, sections of their designs, to try them out before committing millions of $. This is the ‘fail’ of current architecture, IMHO.
COLOURlovers: Vintage Motel Interiors.
Oh, barf. Yeah, I know I’m supposed to like vintage. But in some cases, I’m really REALLY glad to leave it all behind ...
Chicago Tribune: Glen Ellyn artist plays finders-keepers with his paintings.
“A year and a half ago, Skoff, 32, began to leave his artwork around Chicago for others to take home because he realized how easy it was to ignore his artwork. He was not getting noticed. And now he is.”
Atlantic/Business: How Information is Actually Getting More Expensive.
“Every year the average American spends $1000 a year on services like cable, Internet and video games. Add another $1000 for cell phone services, writes NYT’s Jenna Wortham, and ‘the average family is spending as much on entertainment over devices as they are on dining out or buying gasoline.’ Actually, $2000 a year to carry the world in your laptop and your phone could be the low end for real tech junkies.” Add the hardware upgrades (new TVs, new cellphones, new computers, new ... whatevers), and you have quite a bit more than that.
Early Retirement Blog: Set Aside 10% Of Your Work For Retirement, Not 10% Of Your Income.
“It is often said a person’s earning power, that is, the ability to earn an income, is by far the biggest asset anybody has. This is entirely true, but what this doesn’t tell you is that you can magnify your earning potential several times over working for yourself rather than somebody else. This means finding a low-maintenance side gig and banking the earnings.”
Atlantic, Business: Unemployment Rate Falls To 9.7%, But 20,000 Jobs Were Lost?
“Even though the economy is a net job loser, we’re definitely flirting with real job growth. That should begin over the next few months.” Sounds like wishful thinking to me, but I’ll bite. It’s February. I need something to look forward to, other than doing my thrice-cursed taxes ...
Apartment Therapy: How To Remove a Stripped Screw Without an Extractor Home Hacks.
I always thought it called for a Dremel Tool blade, and a careful slotting. The rubber band trick might work, though.
