Serendipity

Here's a thought: recycle water bottles . .

I try not to buy bottled water to drink but sometimes must.  Those bottles go into recycling and that's all fine.  But I've discovered SoBe drinks = low/no cal flavored water drinks which I do enjoy - but the best prize of all is the bottle.  It's a solid, hard sided water bottle and after finishing the SoBe drink, I just keep filling it up, putting it in the fridge and drinking from them through the day - these are great bottles and can be used over and over, cutting down on the plethora of plastic with which we live.

Why the Republicans will win the Debt debate. Depressing

The Republicans don't care if the federal government collapses and non-rich people are screwed.  Democrats can be extorted to do anything to keep the federal government functioning and taking care of non-rich people.  

Because of this, and the implacability of the Rs there is no ability of the Ds to negotiate from a position of strength.  

 

If the Rs had any sense of history, decency, political courage, or were able and willing to fulfill their oath of office, that'd be be fine.  But they don't have any of that and thus, they are like the lone wolf assassination killer = able to penetrate all the defenses of decent people. 

You can't negotiate with them.  And you really can't defend against them.

 

Another app for readers - Calibre

calibre is an e-book library manager. It can view, convert and catalog e-books in most of the major e-book formats. It can also talk to a few e-book reader devices. It can go out to the internet and fetch metadata for your books. It can download newspapers and convert them into e-books for convenient reading. It is cross platform, running on Linux, Windows and OS X.

Calibre's Manual

Another website for readers

Is LibraryThing.com.  You can list the books you've read and find others who've done likewise.  You can look for new books to read of a type you like.  You can join the Early Reviewers group and offer to review a book in exchange for a free copy of it [lottery selection].  

Mystery Reading....

This summer is a good time to get back into reading and, since I love mysteries, I checked out a blog I noted in the past which springs from a website:  Cozy-Mystery

Although the site focuses on what are called 'cozies', other mystery authors are listed as well.  What's a cozy?  The site defines it as:

The crime-solver in a cozy mystery is usually a woman who is an amateur sleuth. Almost always, she has a college degree, whether she is using it or not. Her education and life’s experiences have provided her with certain skills that she will utilize in order to solve all the crimes that are “thrown her way.” The cozy mystery heroine is usually a very intuitive, bright woman. The occupations of the amateur sleuths are very diverse: caterer, bed and breakfast owner, quilter, cat fancier/owner, nun, gardener, librarian, book store owner, herbalist, florist, dog trainer, homemaker, teacher, needlepoint store owner, etc. These are just a few examples of what the amateur sleuth does…. When she’s not solving crimes, that is!

A very special Apple birthday cake

What a wonderful treat!  

Anyone who knows me knows why this is particularly special.

Simple Tests for Stroke

This article, from WebMD, is from 2003 but the three tests still apply:

WebMD You Could Diagnose Stroke

. . . Brice and her colleagues measured the accuracy of the test by first teaching it to 100 healthy bystanders. The bystanders then performed the test on stroke survivors. To diagnose a stroke, the bystanders performed the following three steps:

1. Bystander told the patients, "Show me your teeth." The "smile test" is used to check for one-sided facial weakness -- a classic sign of stroke.

2. Then the patients were told to close their eyes and raise their arms. Stroke patients usually cannot raise both arms to the same height, a sign of arm weakness.

 3. Finally, the patients were asked to repeat a simple sentence to check for slurring of speech, which is another classic sign of stroke. "In Cincinnati, the researchers asked patients to say, 'The sky is blue in Cincinnati,'" says Brice. But in the study, the researchers varied four simple phrases such as "Don't cry over spilled milk.". . . . 

"This is so simple that even a child could use it. Look at how many children have saved their parents by doing CPR, and this is so much simpler," says Kenton. He says he thinks the test should be promoted for use by the general public.

Brice agrees with this assessment, saying that it could be like the Stop, Drop and Roll campaign to avoid burn injuries. "We call it: Talk, wave, smile."

 

Travel Apps for the iPhone4 [and iPad]

I blogged earlier on the topic of some good travel applications for the iPhone4 at my JZ blog:  JourneyZing.

iPhone4 Applications to Consider

A friend of mine recently got an iPhone4 and we talked, as I have had mine since this past summer.  I said I'd give her some information about the applications that I found most helpful, and figured I'd share the information here as well.

First, realize that many [not all] applications are not only able to work on the iPhone but also the iPad, although they may not look smashing on the iPad, they'll work.

Second, there are all sorts of sites online that provide suggestions for applications.  Several which I find useful are:  Lifehacker, Make Use Of and Mashable.  There are no doubt others easily found through online research.

Third, the iPhone4 operating system has a great 'new' feature in it [which comes to the iPad apparently in November] - it's the ability to gather apps together into 'folders', which lets you have many more apps on your iPhone than the 11 screens will let you have normally.  Using these folders is a great way also to organize your apps the way you want them, fairly simply.

My suggestion for the main [front] page is to keep apps on it which you use quite often.  That will include all the Apple OS apps but in addition there are several that I find myself using over and over so they're on the Main page.

Two favorite apps are:  AppBoxPro [you can get Lite free but for 99¢ you can get Pro, and it's worth it]  and TripIt.  In fact, having AppBoxPro lets you use its many functions within that one application and not need to resort to a plethora of others.  AppBoxPro includes information on how much memory, storage and battery life you have.  And it includes apps for other tasks:  date calculator, a flashlight, holidays, loan calcs, pregnancy calendar, translator, tip calculator, and more. 

TripIt is an online site where you can keep your trip plans and share them or access them on the road.  I do not suggest you publish that information publicly, as a matter of privacy and safety.  [You shouldn't telegraph to the world you're away from home, or going to a certain place.]   But having only your family and closest friends able to subscribe to and be aware of your trip details is great.  And when traveling, you can easily access all the details thru this one app on your iPhone, including directions, maps, lodging, meals etc.

I'll follow up this post with more in coming days on the other pages of my iPhone4 and suggested apps.  

They really know how to put fear into you in Chile!

The cigarette warning label on a pack in Chile is pretty graphic and certainly warns of the dangers of smoking:  Using Google Translate to translate the wording really makes the point as well:  The choking smoke and snuff the sick.