Unrealistic Expectations

No offense to all of you "twitterholics" out there but I find it hard to believe that Time would pick Twitter as the person of the year. Despite the whole one time when it was "you" -- Especially now that people are using twitter to profit from selling keywords and the reality is, Twitter is really not much more than a glorified RSS reader...

I use Twitter as a way for people to keep up to date on my local political blog but I don't have time to "Tweet" every decision I make from what I am having for lunch to needing to use the restroom as some do. If anything, Twitter shows us how self-ego driven we are as a society, I'm not sure that's something to celebrate...

Posted by Lisa Renee at 6:42 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: media, tech

While I have taken advantage of my digital camera for both blogging and in real life, I admit I have never owned one of the various ipods out there. The rest of my family members have iPods or other MP3 players, but I still listen to music on my computer...I think for me it's years of wearing head sets for either call center work or transcription typing that's made me not a fan of the whole ear phone thing, that's probably also one of the reasons I've never activated the blue tooth headset for my phone...

Posted by Lisa Renee at 4:44 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: electronics, shopping, tech

One reason why citizen journalism is more popular is because digital cameras are less expensive and easy to record video of events political and otherwise which can then be quickly shared online. There have been hundreds of situations where the video or photos taken have not been material that the traditional news media was present for. From tornados to politicians saying things they might not have wanted to say if they knew the "camera" was rolling? The digital technology revolution has made a huge impact on what we can actually see and hear...

Posted by Lisa Renee at 4:41 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: media, tech

I don't normally cross post material, but I think this one is relevant for the readership of more than one of my blogs...I followed the Kelo versus New London story for a variety of reasons, one of which is that is where my husband is from, another was that I took issue with the way eminent domain was being used there, and had been used here in Toledo. Now, as a sad end to the whole tale, Pfizer is leaving:

Pfizer’s abandonment of its plans for New London render moot the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on eminent domain in Kelo v. New London. In the case, the city of New London had sought “eminent domain” power to seize the houses of several people living in a run-down neighborhood. The land was to be transformed into Pfizer’s new facility. The city argued it needed to bulldoze blighted areas in order to redevelop them. Susette Kelo argued the government should not have the right to take her home.

Posted by Lisa Renee at 4:39 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: Consumer, government, law

In doing some research on gold in the below post, I came across this article that stemmed from a speech given by F. William Engdahl at an international conference held in Feldkirch, Austria, September 2003. It provides some historical information on the dollar that unfortunately I don't believe many are aware of, while I don't agree with everything written, I think it was and still is a thought provoking piece that I recommend taking the time to read.

Posted by Lisa Renee at 8:16 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: finance, government

Once upon a time the US dollar was based on gold, from the time of our beginning as a nation until the dollar was fixed to an ounce of gold bullion. Then it changed, where the dollar was not securely fixed to any type of gold, from bullion to gold coins, it was and basically is a political currency.

Which is why some still feel gold is more secure since it is tangible, you can hold a gold coin in your hand, if the paper dollar were to disappear, gold and other metal commodities would still have value. It's why so many purchase gold as part of their investment package and why companies like Aurum Advisors specialize in the sale of gold in it's various forms. It creates a profit for some but it also provides a feeling of financial security, that no matter what happens to the value of the US dollar, gold will still exist and be sale-able.

Posted by Lisa Renee at 8:07 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: finance, marketing

I found this article to be really interesting, as a fan of high quality tuna, I'd noticed the price had increased, this Time article, Hunting for Tuna: The Environmental Peril Grows not only answers that but provides much more detail into the actual tuna industry. Part of:

For some species of tuna, the chase is becoming unsustainable. In September, the European Commission recommended that the E.U. support a temporary suspension of the global trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a majestic cousin of the yellowfin sold for tens of thousands of dollars a head for its coveted sashimi meat. At current fishing rates, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that Atlantic bluefin that spawn in the Mediterranean could disappear from those waters as early as 2012. But the recommended ban was shot down by E.U. member states including Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Spain, France and Italy — all countries with a stake in the trade. "The hunt is relentless," says Michael Sutton, vice president of the Center for the Future of the Oceans at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. "These are the wolves, grizzly bears, lions and tigers of the ocean. If you take the top predators out, the ecosystem begins to get out of balance." On land, when top predators like lions or wolves die off, lesser ones like baboons or coyotes flourish, throwing an entire food chain off. The same goes for oceans. Scientists believe stocks of southern bluefin around Australia have likely fallen over 90% since the 1950s and could continue to drop. Of the world's 19 non-bluefin commercial tuna stocks, half are now overfished or at risk of going that direction, according to the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), a partnership of canning companies, scientists and the WWF.

Posted by Lisa Renee at 7:54 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: business, environment, food

The Black and Mild cigar was actually launched in 1980, and it's been popular ever since with the popularity of cigars growing, some would say even more so. It came two years after Black & Mild pipe tobacco was launched. What's interesting is there are even wiki's on how to remove the paper filter part of the Black & Mild cigar which some feel makes it a better smoke that give you the step by step directions on how to do it with no loss of the actual tobacco...

Posted by Lisa Renee at 10:38 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: Consumer, shopping, tech

Wondering exactly how could science stop illegally harvested caviar? Well, it's all in what they feed the fish according to this New Scientist magazine article and it's really kind of interesting...(Even though I'm not a fan of caviar.)

Sven Wuertz at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, and his colleagues set out to investigate whether it would be possible to tag farmed caviar by feeding fish special diets.

They raised female Acipenser ruthenus sturgeons on a diet supplemented with three tracer chemicals: alpha-tocopherol, caprylic acid and capric acid. After 10, 60 and 90 days, Wuertz' team made tiny incisions in the fish's ovaries and measured the accumulation of the chemicals in the caviar.

While alpha-tocopherol and caprylic acid failed to accumulate, within 10 days of starting the experiment capric acid was detectable in both mature and maturing females. Levels of the tracer chemical increased constantly throughout the trial period.

The concentrations of capric acid in the caviar were too low to change its taste. Because of this, Wuertz believes his team has hit on a cheap and simple tool for labelling farmed caviar that could be used under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which regulates international trade in caviar

Posted by Lisa Renee at 10:35 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: Consumer, food, science

One consumer tip I don't think enough people follow is to check to make sure they are getting the best deal when it comes to insurance, not just health insurance but car, home and even life insurance. You can easily find insurance online and get quotes for insurance online. Maybe you are currently getting the best deal, but maybe you are not and that answer could be just a few mouse clicks away...

Posted by Lisa Renee at 10:32 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: Consumer, tech

There has been quite a bit of focus during the presidential election and since on health care, we've actually been discussing health care since the 1970's with some achievements but not to the point where the average person does not wonder where they can get cheap health insurance. Then of course not just the cost of the insurance but what you actually get for that insurance. I know quite a few people who can not afford vision or dental insurance since what little expendable income they have, goes towards medical insurance.

Posted by Lisa Renee at 10:16 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: government, Medical

I was sitting downtown tonight, waiting for the bus, watching the cars and people go by when I noticed something. There were quite a few older cars that had been decked out with car accessories, not traditional muscle cars of years past but older type malibu and other cars that you'd not typically see someone having done the Toledo version of "pimp my ride" -- which means either some in Toledo are holding on to their cars longer, and therefore spending more money on them rather than something new or? Some residents want their car no matter how old it is too not look stock...

Posted by Lisa Renee at 9:54 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: cars, shopping

That's the title of this Newsweek article that I highly recommend you read about the stimulus package. Yesterday I received information that Ohio had met the first set of requirements set out by the federal government, which makes this article even more interesting to me since Ohio is reporting some new jobs and job retention already as a result of the stimulus package.

Some things about the stimulus are indeed complicated. How precisely do you measure the number of jobs "saved" when the federal government cuts checks to states, thus allowing them to avoid budget cuts? But some things about the stimulus are quite simple, including its size and the amount of it that has been spent so far.

To begin with, the stimulus was $787 billion, not $800 billion. (Those of you who think there isn't much of a difference, please make out a check for the difference to Daniel M. Gross.) The more egregious error has to do with the timing. Many critics act as if the entire amount has already been spent. They're completely wrong. Even to argue that it's been half-spent, as the Post, does, is only half-right.

Posted by Lisa Renee at 11:41 AM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: business, economy, government, media

With the way things are in this country related to the cost of some procedures, it is becoming more and more common for people to not take travel vacations but to arrange for medical travel trips to have procedures done in other countries that will charge less. One area this is becoming more common place in is plastic surgery since most policies don't cover this but it's also happening in areas where insurance coverage is limited.

Posted by Lisa Renee at 3:28 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: Medical, travel

Have you wondered where the term "Bronx Cheer" came from? It's not a cheer as most of you know it's also known as "blowing a raspberry." You can guess that it came from the Bronx though that's not a given, French Toast and French Fries didn't come from France. It's been reported that it came from New Yorkers expressing their unhappiness at baseball games with the first reporting of a Bronx cheer taking place back in the 1890's. It is of course not something you'd want to do to a Bronx medical malpractice lawyer unless of course you were the one who was being sued...

:-)

Posted by Lisa Renee at 1:41 PM | 0 grains of wisdom  
Labels: history, marketing