Go Tigah!

Richard Sandomir writes in the Times:

"In the midst of Ed Bradley's worshipful two-part profile of Tiger Woods on "60 Minutes" last Sunday, I wondered if it was an infomercial or if Woods had paid a fee for these adoring 25 minutes. With nothing new to report — and not a single tough question in his arsenal — Bradley chose to join Camp Tiger.

Bradley looked to be enjoying himself too much as he smiled and chuckled along with Woods in various locales, conjuring comparisons to the buddy act of Ahmad Rashad and Michael Jordan, who, like Woods, surrenders so little to journalists but whose consent to be interviewed is deemed an occasion to send a camera crew.

This puffy profile reminded me of a "documentary" about Woods — "Son, Hero, Champion" — that preceded CBS's fourth-round coverage of the Masters in 1997. It was produced by IMG, the agency that represents Woods, so you know how objective and unconflicted it was. Here's kind of how it went:

BRADLEY How much was the boat?

WOODS A lot.

BRADLEY And the new house?

WOODS A lot.

By not pressing Woods for what he paid ($38 million for the estate, $20 million for the yacht, figures that have been widely reported), Bradley gave the impression that he did not want to embarrass Woods by quantifying evidence of how he spends his golf winnings on conspicuous consumption.

Yet during a visit to Woods's new learning center for children near Anaheim, Calif., Bradley declared that Woods had invested more than $5 million in it. That's a lot, too, and Bradley properly reported it. Bradley's strategy was to be Woods's pal, or at least the official tour guide through his extremely well-known career.

Budget hotels in Anaheim

Who Picks the Songs for the Idols?

MTV writes about song choices on American Idol.

"There's style and song arrangement, both overseen by professionals hired by the show. Some have argued the importance of camera time, which is, of course, out of a contestant's control. And there's song selection, the one true strategic element in the "Idol" race.

All you have to do is watch an episode and count how many times you hear the words "I didn't like that song for you," or "Perfect song" or "That was a big risk with your song choice" to see how much it has played a part in the fifth season.

Or just ask last season's runner-up, Bo Bice. "That's the most important part of 'Idol,' " he said.

Contestants have lived or died by their song picks since the semifinals this season, and what should make things interesting is that many of the finalists have different approaches to choosing songs.

"I try to pick songs that are my favorite songs that I listen to, like that Fuel song has been one of my favorite songs ever since it came out," said Chris Daughtry, referencing his rendition of "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" in the second week of semifinals.

"I try to go with songs that I already know, even though they could be cliché to sing on the show," Katharine McPhee added. "I wanted to sing this other song a couple of weeks ago, and I chose to do [something new instead] and it didn't come out as well. You just have to go with what you know that you can do the best, what you love, what feels good and what represents you."

Familiarity may be key to some, but others are more about finding lyrics they can relate to at the moment, which could be part of a song that's entirely new to the performer.

"If I can't tie to it emotionally, I'm not going to do it," Ace Young said. "That is my key. If I can feel it and I can portray it, than you can feel it with me. Entertainment is my stress relief, so it should be your release watching."

Forest Saved; Good News from the South

A day of running around meeting with bookkeepers and signmakers...and when I got a moment, I sat in the window of the cafe and read the Republican. Buried deep way way back, in the sports section, was this important news for the environment.

Two conservation groups will buy 218,000 acres of forest from International Paper, in a $300 million deal. "The forests of the south are among the richest in terms of total number of species of any habitats in the world," said Steve McCormack, Pres of the Nature Conservancy. The agreement allows five more years of logging, on 3/4 of the land, but after that no more cutting.The group also has committed to buying 173,000 more acres in NC, VA, GA, FL, AL AR,TN, LA and MS.

These dry little items are what adds up to the good news coming from the environmental movement. We need to keep doing this to keep things in the right balance.

Justice Scalia: You Watch Too Many Sopranos'

In a letter to the editor of the Boston Herald, an almost unheard-of step for a Supreme Court justice, Justice Antonin Scalia said a reporter misinterpreted the gesture he made when she asked whether his participation in Sunday’s special Mass for lawyers might cause some people to question his impartiality in matters of church and state.

“Your reporter, an up-and-coming ‘gotcha’ star named Laurel J. Sweet, asked me (o-so-sweetly) what I said to those people. . .,” Scalia wrote to Executive Editor Kenneth A. Chandler. “I responded, jocularly, with a gesture that consisted of fanning the fingers of my right hand under my chin. Seeing that she did not understand, I said, ‘That’s Sicilian,’ and explained its meaning.” In his letter, Scalia goes on to cite Luigi Barzini’s book, “The Italians”: “ ‘The extended fingers of one hand moving slowly back and forth under the raised chin means: “I couldn’t care less. It’s no business of mine. Count me out.” ’ ”

“From watching too many episodes of the Sopranos, your staff seems to have acquired the belief that any Sicilian gesture is obscene - especially when made by an ‘Italian jurist.’ (I am, by the way, an American jurist.)”

With Whom Would She Eat Those Lean Cuisines?

I went to the supermarket early this morning. On the way, I stopped by my cafe, and met a fellow business owner strolling down the sidewalk. "Come on in for a coffee," I offered, but he didn't break his stride. I spied him later carrying a to-go cup from the place down the street. Oh well.

At the Stop and Shop, I waited in line to pay. In front of me was a slender light skinned black woman wearing a warm-up suit, that said "Mama" on the left chest. She was buying what looked like a week's worth of dinner--seven Lean Cuisines stacked up on the belt, and some oranges.

I always think about the person ahead of me in line--who was she going to enjoy these chicken dinners with, who was the child who called her Mama, and why she wanted to have the same thing for dinner seven nights in a row. But I had to go bake for the cafe, so I headed back to South Deerfield without that answer.

Paying Tribute to the Ultimate Mensch

I read the obituaries regularly. Some times one sticks out, like this one I saw today on Boston.com, titled "the Ultimate Mensch." Sam Allis wrote about James O. Freedman, former president of Dartmouth, who died of cancer recently.

"I first him met over a decade ago, when I covered education for a newsmagazine and he ran Dartmouth. It was in Hanover, ultima Thule of Ivy League campuses, and I was reporting a story on the scandalously small amount of time tenured professors at research universities in this country spent in the classroom.

'Why shouldn't they work as hard as the rest of us,' I would ask, nostrils flaring. I'd get ludicrous answers from university spokesfolks who, straight-faced, maintained these mandarins were actually engaged in deep thinking while engaging in activities like shaving. (I too ponder big questions while shaving: khaki or corduroy?)

Anyway, I confronted this gentle man with an owlish presence and threw the bomb at him. He immediately replied, ''Of course they don't work as hard as the rest of us." I was floored.

Jim then went on to make a cogent case that it is reasonable for our best thinkers -- at the time he was guessing maybe 8,000 people out of a population of 250 million -- to be paid to do what they do best: think. What a refreshing answer. You could embrace it, carp about it, or flat-out disagree, but what he presented was a serious argument that did not insult your intelligence. I've adored Jim Freedman ever since.

Jim died last Tuesday. He took with him a brand of kindness alien to most of us. At the end, trapped in a hospital bed, one eye gone and his speech slurred, he would deflect your question about him with one about you and your loved ones. He cared deeply about the answer. How odd.

Cooking Ahead, Almost as Good as Making Dinner

I hit another WiFi coffeehouse today in Northampton, MA. I sat at a big table with five others, three of whom also typed into their laptops. But I couldn't get a signal, so I had to write this and post it later.

There was a story in the NY Times about a burgeoning new idea--'cooking centers,' where people can go prepare a week's worth of dinners ahead of time, without having to chop, peel, or defrost. All of the recipes are simple, and all of the ingredients are waiting for you....chicken breasts, chopped parsley, cooked pasta.

It started in Seattle, where Dream Dinners" was started. It's like a cooking session with friends, they bring in wine, play music, and in a few hours walk out with five or ten ready to cook dinners. It makes time-challenged moms feel like they cooked dinner themselves, and now they won't have to serve take-out pizza or Chinese. "They can say, 'this is something I made...I can have my inlaws over to dinner and I won't get a hard time from them."

You Mean, We Won't Be Rich Some Day?

What Eduardo Porter writes in today's NY Times will disappoint many readers my age. He says that there will be much less money from our parents to inherit than we think.

"While some forecasters still hope that the vast pool of wealth accumulated by the generations born in the first half of last century will prop up the finances of their aging offspring, new statistics provide a starker picture.

Though hundreds of billions of dollars are being passed on every year, most elderly Americans can probably forget about passing on a financial lifeline to their children.

The latest numbers confirm that a vast majority of baby boomers cannot count on an inheritance to help them out of their jam. Even as the total pile of wealth passed down the generations has increased sharply, the inheritance received by a typical American has declined. The shift can be explained in part by demographics changes, but also by the changing nature of old age (life expectancy has increased) and retirement financing (rather, the lack of it).

Yes, big money is being passed down. According to the Fed data, the overall pie of inheritances has grown to nearly $200 billion annually — more than three times the amount that was passed down in the mid-1970's, after accounting for inflation. Paul Schervish and John Havens of Boston College's Center for Wealth and Philanthropy predict that by midcentury, $25 trillion will be passed from the old to their offspring.

But the typical American is seeing little of this wealth. Mr. Schervish and Mr. Havens found that most money would go to a few lucky heirs: 7 percent of the estates would account for half the aggregate bequests.

Eric Suher is a Friend Again

It's Sunday morning, and I'm typing at Rao's Coffee a big coffeehouse in Amherst. I am seeing how these guys do it, so I can bring back some wisdom to my own little cafe. Last night I spoke cordially with an old nemesis: it felt great to be back in touch with Eric Suher, for whom I worked for five years selling shirts at ES Sports.

I left that job in 2002, and jumped to a rival company, Bolduc's and sold the same products to a lot of the same customers. And for four years we never spoke, nor crossed paths. Eric is a powerful guy, the owner of dozens of buildings in Northampton, and the entrepreneur behind the Iron Horse, the Calvin Theater, and Pearl Street. He is well-known as a hardworking man who has been largely responsible for Northampton's growth as an arts town. I saw Eric outside during my friend Joe's gig, he was playing the Basement with Treefort. I steeled up my nerve and went out to shake his hand. He looked me in the eye, with that famous penetrating eye contact, and we caught up with eachother, and there was nothing but good feelings. Gone was any resentment over my leaving, there was just interest in my new cafe, and my website work. He shared some of his love for this small club 'my favorite of all my venues' and laughed about how there is no sign above the door.

He spoke about his Baptist church in Northampton's center, how it will become a banquet hall, and he spoke about how the press tried to hachet him over the slow pace of renovations. It was good, really good, to speak with this dynamic man, and after four years, be friends again.

Go Deep, Young Man, and Find It

Wendy Boswell is a genius who knows all about web stuff. Below is her advice on finding the "Deep Web," with 500 times the amount of web pages catalogued by Google.

"That’s one of the tricks you can use to find Invisible Web content – just put the word “database” in your query and more often than not you’ll come back lucky. This takes you to an academic, accredited, footnote-able institution. Way more worthy of a citation than say Billy Bob’s Guide To That Them There Hogs.

Let’s try another query: how about you’re doing an in-depth report on the past ten years of plane crashes in Argentina. Try a query for “plane crash Argentina” in Yahoo and you’ll get mostly news items, which would take a long time to comb through. Let’s try this query again: “aviation database”, and then we’ll work our way down to the plane crashes.

The fifth site on our list is the winner, and that is the NTSB Aviation Accident Database. It took a bit of work to get there, but with the depth of search and information that this particular database offers, it was worth it.

Invisible Web Gateways

Maybe you don’t want to dink around with finding databases on the Web; you would like to go straight to the databases themselves. There are sites that serve as invisible Web “gateways” that will help you do this. Here are just a few:

Invisible Web: Gary Price and Chris Sherman have put together a searchable directory of various databases on the Invisible Web.

Librarians Index to the Internet: A directory of various sites on both the visible and invisible Web put together by librarians; all are reviewed before inclusion and have the Librarian Stamp Of Approval.

GPO Access: An amazing site. You can search hundreds of US Government databases at the same time.

WebLens Scholarly and Academic Research Resources: Includes databases as diverse as the Stanford University High Wire Press Archives, a searchable index of past issues of the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, a “galaxy of knowledge.”

Wal-Mart Might be the Tipping Point for Organics

At the cafe, we buy all of the local papers, so today I browsed the Greenfield Recorder, and found a significant story about Wal-Mart. The headline 'Wal-Mart Goes Organic,' meant a tipping point will soon be reached. The stores are throwing their massive weight behind purchasing only wild-caught fish that are caught by sustainable means....so no more long line or drift net caught fish.

"Sustainability experts say that what makes this program interesting is that Wal-Mart will work with its suppliers to get more fisheries around the world certified by MSC, instead of just buying up the existing stock of certified fish. The store says that this means there will be more sustainable fish available to their competitors.

"Like many big companies, they have figured out it is just good marketing and good reputation building to be in favor of things that Americans are increasingly interested in," said a consultant.

A Silver Vibrator to Drum Up Subscriptions

From the archives of Zinester, I found this interesting item about a new subscriber gift from a French magazine.

Good Vibrations: When the December issue of Jalouse hit Paris newsstands Friday, it came polybagged with a gift that the publisher believes is a first in the industry: a silver-plated vibrator. "When our marketing director, Olivier Junger, came up with the idea, he cited a statistic he'd found about the U.S. market which claimed that 75 percent of women own one," Marie-Jose Eymere-Jalouse, president of Editions Jalou, explained.

"I said yes immediately." She added that, of Jalouse's circulation of 100,000, some 40,000 copies are shrink-wrapped with the freebie and sold at newsstands only. Subscribers will not receive them, said Eymere-Jalouse, "but if they contact us, we will send them one." Batteries not included, of course.

A Bright Kid Who You'd be Crazy Not to Hire

The interns who work with us a GoNOMAD are often quite successful when they leave us and move out of Amherst and into the real world. A few years ago, we had Amanda Denz as an intern. She was the best writer I'd seen of all the interns over the years, and had a natural flow...she seemed born to work as a writer on a magazine. Over the past few years, I've fielded three or four calls from prospective employers. They would ask about what kind of a worker she was, and what her strengths were.

I always answered positively about Amanda. I liked her and I think she would be a valuable asset to any company. A month ago, the HR person from the San Francisco Medical Journal called, asking about Amanda. She was hiring for a Managing Editor. This was a prestigious gig!

I told her "she is a hard worker, a great person, and I'd hire her. She may not know that much about medical editing, but when you find a bright young person, who seizes what it's all about, and can easily learn, you should grab her." The woman from San Francisco said, yes, I know what you mean. That's the kind of person we want. I think we will hire Amanda."

It tickled me to have a small hand in the hiring of Amanda Denz, to this big new job. And once she was a lowly intern at a travel website in New England!

Our Outdoor Cafe: What I've Always Hoped For

Random musings: Woke up early today, again, and padded downstairs to bake the quickbreads for the cafe. It feels great to offer banana bread and other homemade treats at the GoNOMAD Cafe. Since I arrive there at about 7 and stay until at least 7, I am pretty much working all of the time. But I stil hold to my original thesis: I don't really work, I do what I love and it all makes money for me. But the contrast between working for myself and working for 'da man' is striking...I'm much more generous with me.

Today is a big day--our freezer arrives, a chest unit, and then the truck comes with the bagels. We'll have four kinds of bagels and nobody else in town has them. Things have been busier at the cafe, more people coming in, more regulars coming back, and a sense is that this place is gonna be hopping when spring fully rolls in. Our wonderful neighbors, Georgio's, are letting us put our tables outside their door.

So we will have three or four tables, umbrellas, and the cafe scene will blossum in downtown South Deerfield when the weather breaks.

Fox to Newscasters--Wear Red White and Blue

Believe it or not, the news anchors and reporters at the Fox-owned station WFLD Channel 32 were ordered by their boss to wear flashy clothes -- preferably "red white and blue." Robert Feder writes in today's Chicago Sun Times.

In an internal memo obtained by this column, Andrew Finlayson, the recently installed vice president of news at Channel 32, told on-air staffers to think of their election night coverage as a "party" and to dress accordingly.

"Dull clothes are out," Finlayson declared. "Red white and blue is in . . . I know it sounds obvious . . . but sometimes people forget and show up in just shades of gray. We want to be comfortable, professional and ready to rock."

What's the point of his wardrobe edict? Ratings, of course.

"Sparkle and shine," Finlayson wrote, "and give the viewers a visual difference when they are flipping around. Content will win, but you want to catch the eye of our friends and neighbors at home."

As of this writing, it's too soon to tell whether the dress code had any effect on Channel 32's ratings. (The station's newscasts generally lag behind its competitors, which accounts for the recent management upheaval there.)

But the very idea of journalists being ordered to wear attention-getting costumes while they cover the news struck some staffers as offensive, patronizing or just plain dumb. And the idea of putting such a directive in writing might have been even dumber.

Cue the clowns and jugglers.

The Pot Hottie: Justice Favors the Cute

Today's NY Post screamed a headline that was irresistable: "The Pot Hottie Breathes Freedom." "Prosecutors said Julia Diaco, 20,dealt to undercover officers eight times, with her biggest deal $650 worth of cocaine, and would ply her wares on and around the NYU campus, including Washington Square Park.

When she was arrested, she was carrying several ounces of marijuana and a scale.

The case was surprising because the petite Diaco didn't need the money - she's the daughter of a millionaire builder and grew up in a castle-like mansion in tony Rumson, N.J.

Diaco pleaded guilty to drug possession and sale charges in 2004, but was allowed to withdraw that plea and plead guilty to lesser versions of those charges yesterday after successfully completing her drug rehab program and passing her drug tests.

She now attends a community college in New Jersey.

News of the deal frustrated Anthony Papa, 51, who, like Diaco, was once a first-time, non-violent offender. Instead of probation, he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for delivering four ounces of cocaine for a police informant to an undercover cop for a $500 fee. The owner of a struggling auto repair business in The Bronx, Papa was desperate for cash and couldn't afford a pricey lawyer.

"I get angry with a case like this because the laws are not applied equally. Because she had money and the right lawyers, she didn't go to jail. Others should have that same opportunity," he said. "All people should be treated like this woman - with compassion."

Nice Guy in the Toothpaste Biz Makes Good

I met Tom Chappell once, he is also a parent of a student who graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon, my old school. I thought about how the folks there who do fundraising will handle this potential donor. The Boston Globe had this story.

"Chappell, 63, gave up a corporate career in Philadelphia and moved to Maine with his wife in 1968 to pursue a simpler lifestyle. Their company, founded with a $5,000 loan, focused on environmentally friendly products, the first being a phosphate-free laundry detergent called Clearlake. Colgate is purchasing the company for $100 million in cash.

Tom's of Maine now has 90 natural products, including toothpaste, mouthwash and deodorant, and a work force totaling about 160 at its corporate offices in Kennebunk, its production facility in Sanford and on its national sales force.

The company has gained a reputation for philanthropy, donating 10 percent of its pretax profits to nonprofit organizations that benefit the environment, the needy, the arts and education. It also allows employees to spend 5 percent of their paid time on volunteer work.

The U.S. market for so-called natural oral and personal care products is valued at $3 billion and is growing at 15 percent per year, Colgate said.

"The irony is that although we are growing in the high teens and low 20s, it's not enough to meet a demand 10 times the size," Chappell said in an interview. "About 25 percent of Americans are interested in these kinds of products."

Max's Bagel Sales Redux

Random musings on this cold March morning the second day of spring: Things in the cafe are looking up! We had our best day ever on Monday, and did it with our homemade banana breads and other goodies. We didn't buy any pastries that we'd have to throw away, we sold lots of coffee and some internet time...and that was good.

I also made a big decision, in a giant loop: When I was in prep school, I was known for selling bagels late at night out of my dorm room. Max's Bagel Sales was the place you'd go about midnight when you had to have a snack. Voila, fast forward to 2006. I am going to start selling bagels at our cafe! We will bake them off, so they'll come our of the oven ready to go. And we'll have these teeny cream cheese packs you can slather on them. We're now shopping for a used freezer.

The other interesting development came from Beirut. We are in discussions to provide travel content to a new middle east airline inflight magazine, and if we get the contract, I'll have a new title -- Editor! Funny, as doors close shut and fear sets in, after you shake it off, at 5 am, you wake up to new opportunities. Here is one coming right at us, we're going to grab it!

Think That Might be a Bit Too Much to Carry?

Boingboing.net had a link to this wild and crazy website. Love these photos of overloaded vehicles of every stripe

Shivering Chihuahuas at the Holyoke Parade

Does everybody really love a parade? Today I drove over to the corner of Appleton and Beech Streets, in the area of Holyoke known as the Flats. This was once an Irish enclave, but now it is nearly all Hispanic. I ducked into a crowded little grocery store where people were coming out with beef skewers and meat pies. I was famished, so I bought some.

Waiting for the parade to start, hundreds of people and kids of all ages stood shivering and hopping from foot to foot. A tiny black chihuahau picked up his tiny paw and his whole body shivered. "Frio!" I said to his master, a little girl who picked him up and wrapped him in a green blanket.

People were all dressed up in kelly green outfits, one little boy of about 7 ran around with a huge green hat with a conspicous marijuana leaf design on the top. The parade finally made its way to us...Chief Scott lead the way, smiling and waving to cheers from the crowd. Vendors with shopping carts overflowing with inflated balloons, penants and huge flags scurried out of the way. Two gangbangers tugged on a leash of a scary looking pitbull. It was the Holyoke Parade, the biggest thing that happens every year around here. And for the Irish and the Hispanics, it was a day to be on the street.

Mom, Can I Download Now....Please!?

Mark Cuban is the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a founder of Broadcast.com, which he sold to Yahoo for billions. He talks about a problem that we will all be talking about in the future...on his blogmaverick.com site.

You heard it here first. In the next few years, if you have multiple heavy net users at home, you will be scheduling your internet time and downloads. Instead of Net Nanny at home, you will have Download Nanny on yours and the kids or roommates PCs. If your roommate tries to download a 2gb movie at 9pm, and you still have to work to do later, you cant face the risk of the connection slowing to a crawl and timing out . You are going to set Download Nanny to pop up the dreaded “I dont think so Tim” window that reschedules the download to whatever open time it calculates is available based on the average download speed at any given time of day for your internet connection.

We will reach a point in the next few years where we are complaining about internet speed all the time. This wont be a corporate issue, it will be a home issue. We wont be able to do all the things we want to do on the net how and when we want to do it.

As far as the idea that everything we will ever want to watch on TV, the concept of unlimited video on demand from the internet ? The videos will be out there, stored on the net somewhere. THe problem is, you wont be able to download them and watch them whenever you want. You will be able to download them when you have bandwidth available and can schedule time to do it.

How Fair is Fair Trade?

We made a fire and I read the NY Times on line this morning, we got up so early it feels like it's already 2 pm but only 10:30. A story detailed the story behind a popular trend: Fair Trade products.

"Fair Trade labels don't list the amount paid to farmers; that sum requires research. The amount can vary depending on the commodity. An analysis using information from TransFair shows that cocoa farmers get 3 cents of the $3.49 spent on a 3.5-ounce chocolate bar labeled "organic fair trade" sold at Target. Farmers receive 24 cents for a one-pound bag of fair trade sugar sold at Whole Foods for $3.79.

The coffee farmer who produced the one-pound bag of coffee purchased by Mr. Terman received $1.26, higher than the commodity rate of $1.10. But whether Mr. Terman paid $10 or $6 for that fair trade coffee, the farmer gets the same $1.26.

"There is no reason why fair trade should cost astronomically more than traditional products," Nicole Chettero, a spokeswoman for TransFair USA, said. "We truly believe that the market will work itself out as Fair Trade certified products move from being a niche market to a mainstream option.

In Europe, where fair trade is more pervasive, some critics complain that retailers have taken advantage of consumers who are not price-sensitive. At one point, Britain's largest chain of coffee shops, Costa Coffee, added 18 cents to the price of a cup of cappuccino brewed from fair trade coffee. Yet the coffee cost the chain just one or two cents extra, according to research by Tim Harford, author of the book "The Undercover Economist." The chain has since reduced its price for the drink.

First Give Me Your ZIP--Later, Scan your Finger

Hiawatha Bray writes in the Boston Globe about a new trend: businesses are asking for ZIP codes when customers pull out their credit cards.

"A thief usually won't know the ZIP code assocated with the card he's using. So requiring the ZIP code is a simple way to reduce fraudulent purchases. Gasoline retailers say they ask for ZIP codes in areas where credit fraud is a problem. It's a geographical thing, said Betsy Eaton, spokeswoman for ExxonMobil.

While Amex is the company spearheading this drive to query customer zips, Mastercard specifically forbids merchants from requiring the codes, except at unattended devices like gas pumps, or for orders placed by phone or the Internet. Next up: biometric scanners, where you place your hand on a fingerprint scanner that corresponds with your credit card. Oh boy.

Mitt Ducks and Weaves to Avoid the Press

Brian McGrory wrote about the Mittster in the Boston Globe, and got it spot on.

There is something he couldn't put his finger on about Governor Romney, and it hit him when he went to a speech before a chamber of commerce group. There, the governor looked at his watch and declared, "it's nine o'clock." Clearly, he was telling the 300 or so people gathered that it was time for them to get on with their day. He realized this guy is a classic control freak. But politicians, says McGrory, don't tell people what time it is. They have an aide whisper in their ear and they regretfully, graciously, shake one last hand, then leave. Not Mitt.

Mitt flees the reporters, ducks into side doors, tries to evade the questions and seems 'consumed with the panic that he will say the wrong thing.' Perhaps he fears the same fate as Geo Romney Sr, who tried and failed to run for President.

McGrory's advice for Mitt: "The voters don't want the kind of prim, prompt, and programmed politico that he strives to be. They don't want candidates always searching out the door, glancing at their watch, staring blankly at poeple as they shake their hands....they want candidates who linger rather than lurch. In other words, Mitt, relax. The biggest thing you have to fear is victory, unlikely at best."

To Arianna, the Message IS the Message

The Huffington Post is the hottest blog going, all LA cool and stuff. She was chided recently about publishing text that was "from George Clooney's blog" but was really written by a publicist. How shocking!

"First of all, is the blogosphere powerful or what? As has been endlessly noted, the Clooney blog was drawn from answers he had given in interviews with the Guardian and on Larry King. Neither of which garnered much, if any, reaction.

But, some have asked, is a blog still a blog if it contains repurposed material? My answer is: absolutely. Who cares if the ideas were first expressed in a book, a speech, a play, or an interview? The medium isn't the message; the message is the message. With the right medium providing the needed amplification.

We live in an age of information overload. We're bombarded with words and images from our 500-channel universe and the infinite Internet. We're obsessed with the newest, the latest, the freshest. And what was said yesterday is old news. In this kind of atmosphere, it's all-too-easy for important ideas to be lumped in with the disposable ones and deleted from our internal hard drives.

Indeed, that was the reason I asked George Clooney to blog in the first place. Not in order to add a celebrity to our blog roll but because I felt the ideas I'd heard him eloquently express in interviews bore repeating in a different, new, and contagious forum. Particularly his critique of Democratic cowardice in the run up to the war."

American Inventors Fighting for their Dreams

Television has gotten much better in the 00s. Take tonight's offering, American Inventor. They wrest that same level of pathos out of winning, acceptance and the joy of being picked that American Idol does. But these are inventors, each with their own idea that they fervently believe will change the world. There are four judges here: The Englishman, in the suit, The short bald grumpy guy, The wide-eyed childless woman, and the slick ad agency type who more often than the others says yes. The bald guy is the Simon, the hard-to-sell type. He was enraged with the childless woman when she rejected an invention he thought would be a hit. It was a DVD showing kids what is right and wrong.

Another invention the judges quarelled over was the "Tizzy Tube," one woman's idea of what to do with your kid if, or when, they throw a fit. Throw them into this constricting tube, that they can't get out of, and let them bounce off the walls. The inventor was tearful, saying they didn't understand her invention. The judges were aghast, saying it was 'disggusting, gross, get it out of here.'

The sheer and utter joy as the contestants return offstage, with a yes, their joy is palatable and emotional. It wrings it out, misting me up.

Product Placement: Not Just for Movies Anymore

Gail Schiller writes in the Hollywood Reporter about product placement in news programs. "With TV stations facing increased and pressure on advertising revenue, the barriers that shielded news programing from such deals are falling. Product placement, media and branded entertainment agencies say they are increasingly being pitched opportunities from local stations to integrate their clients' products into news programing in exchange for buying commercial time or paying integration fees.

Most stations are focusing their efforts on morning news shows, where lifestyle segments allow for more integration opportunities without sounding as many alarm bells with viewers as it might if product integration popped up in the hard-news portions of their newscasts. At present, full-fledged brand integration into news programing appears to be limited to local news, but some marketing experts suspect that the network morning news shows won't be far behind.

Just last month, "Good Morning America" broadcast segments of the show live from a Norwegian Cruise Line ship as part of a weeklong series called "Girls' Week Out." According to "GMA" spokeswoman Bridgette Maney, Norwegian Cruise Lines did not pay integration fees for the segments, hosted by correspondent Mike Barz and co-anchor Diane Sawyer, but did foot the bill for airfare, room and board to send nearly 300 women -- contest winners and their girlfriends -- on a cruise to Honduras, Jamaica and the Grand Cayman Islands. Most of the segments broadcast from the ship focused on the women who won the cruise by writing in to say why they deserved time away with their girlfriends, she said.

Insurance Company Losses Show--The Warming is Real

The insurance industry doesn't share our President's skepticism about global warming. A column in today's Boston Globe by Derrick Z. Jackson quotes Munich Re, the world's largest re-insurance firm, that the insurance business overall had the worst record of losses in their history in 2004: $210 billion in losses. Now AIG, another insurance giant, says that New York and Florida have lost nearly $2 trillion each of insured coastal property exposure.

"People are getting the idea that there is nowhere to hide on this issue," said Andrew Logan, insurance program director for Boston-based Ceres, which promotes corporate environmentalism. He adds that losses due to weather have grown 10 times faster than premiums since 1971--an obviously unstable equation.

There is a task force of insurance carriers and politicians charged with coming up with strategy to deal with this--they do say that the time for Americans to hide from global warming is over.

Two Visions of One Bridge in Mississippi

Bought the NY Times last night. I still wonder why I do that. When am I gonna read all of these sections? One story was about the division down on the Gulf coast over a new bridge to replace a four-lane structure between Ocean Springs and Biloxi. The chamber of commerce in the bigger Biloxi is pushing for an eight-lane super bridge, so that the many casino workers and condo owners can get to work without traffic jams. But the smaller town wants a four-lane bridge like before, to keep out throngs in their leafy neighborhood.

On the one side, a totally different view--the residents of the smaller town are talking bicycle lanes, trolley cars and a "New Urbanism" which supports pedestrian friendly, historically themed developments, mixing lower and middle class residents and emphasizing public transportation. It's a great opportunity--the place is practically still a total wreck, with the hulks of buildings and debris littering like the hurricane was a week ago. Only the casinos were spared.

But Biloxi is pushing for condos and high-rises, and many scoff at the notion of bike paths and de-emphasis of the car culture. "People refer to what happened as a tragic opportunity," said the President of the Chamber. The casino employed 15,000 before the hurricane. Now they are trying to interest the casinos in building housing for their workers. But first they have to decide on that bridge.

Preach to the Choir, Leave the Naysayers Alone

"Preach to the choir," my wonderful girlfriend Cindy always says. "Don't bother with those who don't support you, or criticize or suspect you...talk and focus on the ones who understand you, want to help you succeed, and believe that you can help them." I love her succinct approach and her solid understanding of how the world works. I am proud that we are celebrating our 3 1/2 year anniversary together, and that we support eachother in all of our endeavors.

I was reminded of Cindy's words today when I went out and pitched neighboring businesses on a new idea--we want to mail out an envelope with coupons from businesses right here in town. We'd mail them only to South Deerfield households, a mere 2809 of them...a micro-market that is the prime market for GoNOMAD Cafe. We want to let people know they don't have to use the computer to come have a coffee here. So I walked around and met with about 14 of them, and they universally, all liked the idea. Except one guy, who rejected me. The only stiff stands out, they said flat out no.

Bob, you're not invited to my choir. We will succeed without you!

Blog in LA: No tech knowledge required. No editors.

Reading Poynter.org today a story linked to this ad for a new website in LA, looking for writers, who want the experience of writing, with a blog-like attitude.

"You're a journalist.

You write about Los Angeles - the live, crackling energy of its politics and people and media and neighborhoods.

You love writing - and you have great L.A. stories to tell, passions to share, beefs to broadcast to the powers that be.

But getting published in the L.A. Weekly, CityBeat, Los Angeles Magazine, the Times and a dozen more L.A. papers and mags means you have to endure the grind: Editors don't return your phone calls. They ignore your emails. They hang onto your work for months. If and when they run it, they mangle it or ask for late, massive changes and further reporting.

Sure, you'd start a blog of your own - if you wanted the hassle - but you don't.

LAVoice.org is your blog - an open, public-access newsblog for all of Los Angeles. We're widely read by L.A. politicians, journalists, bloggers and the people they serve. This active, smart audience engages passionately with people who post stories at LAVoice.

We don't offer money, but we aren't demanding painstakingly researched, 1,500-word stories either.

What we offer is freedom, a space for your voice, a place for your byline, a way to get known. Posting at LAVoice puts your name online, a solid line on your resume, and gives you room to flex your style in short, sharp bursts whenever the mood hits.

No self-marketing hassles. No tech knowledge required. No editors.

LAVoice.org is looking for powerful writers to post short items on L.A.'s politics, media, music, theater and art, the environment and car culture.

You may already have a blog. Promote it by cross-posting your L.A. news to LAVoice.org. If you're passionate and accurate, and if you commit to posting something at least two or three times a week, we'll make you a Featured Voice.

Your words, online within minutes, read daily by thousands in L.A. and beyond. That's all. There's no tryout process, no editorial review. Just your space at a prominent L.A. weblog, waiting to be claimed. GO FOR IT.

A Drizzly Monday at the Cafe

A drizzly, rainy day in South Deerfield, and not many folks are coming in for coffee today. Funny you would think they would need the caffeine more on a day like this, but even the women at the bank said that nobody was coming in and they felt like taking a nap. Alan, bless his heart, reminded me that we are up $5 from last Monday. What would I do without his charming sense of optimism, eh?

Building a retail business takes time. I haven't a wit of patience, but it builds, slowly, frustratingly slowly, and eventually you can look back on the early days and say, wow, we've come a long way. I remember when I started the GoNOMAD website, we used to sell advertising in $100 and $200 dribs and drabs. Those days are far behind us, we finally wised up and offer longer and better programs for much more money per sale. The point is let's stick it out and reach out and create regular customers. And if we can do that we will be here for a long time.

Why I Love Trader Joe's

Today's NY Times included this passage about how the food tasters at Trader Joe's decide on what to buy for the store.

"The pasta buyer had boiled up six different Italian brands of whole-grain pasta and tossed them in plain olive oil.

The group fell silent and began chewing intently. Immediately, comments flew. "Interesting nutty flavors on No. 1." ... "This one has a cardboardy texture at the end." ... "What about the omega-3's on this one?" Eventually, a favorite was determined by a show of hands and a plan sketched for the step ahead: persuading the supplier to make refinements and solve problems.

Next, aged goat cheeses. Then truffled cheeses. ("Like dirty socks." ... "I think people want to see those black flecks." ... "I worry that we're just too far ahead of the curve with these.") Toasted walnuts, then granola clusters. ("How are these not cookies?" the house nutritionist asked.) And finally a new category: trail-mix-based cereals. The group poured milk and chewed. "I am not happy to get a whole almond in my bowl of cereal," one said forcefully.

That kind of passionate, focused attention to food is clearly sensed by Trader Joe's customers. "This sounds crazy, but you feel like the company likes food even more than they like money," said Marcy Benfiglio, who lives near the branch in Larchmont, N.Y. "You don't feel that at the supermarket."

Another Muslim Condemns Fanatic Islam

Dr. Wafa Sultan said the world's Muslims, whom she compares unfavorably with the Jews, have descended into a vortex of self-pity and violence. Her story was told in today's NY Times. She has been threatened by clericswho don't like what she says about Islam.

"Dr. Sultan said the world was not witnessing a clash of religions or cultures, but a battle between modernity and barbarism, a battle that the forces of violent, reactionary Islam are destined to lose.

In response, clerics throughout the Muslim world have condemned her, and her telephone answering machine has filled with dark threats. But Islamic reformers have praised her for saying out loud, in Arabic and on the most widely seen television network in the Arab world, what few Muslims dare to say even in private.

"I believe our people are hostages to our own beliefs and teachings," she said in an interview this week in her home in a Los Angeles suburb.

Dr. Sultan, who is 47, wears a prim sweater and skirt, with fleece-lined slippers and heavy stockings. Her eyes and hair are jet black and her modest manner belies her intense words: "Knowledge has released me from this backward thinking. Somebody has to help free the Muslim people from these wrong beliefs."

Perhaps her most provocative words on Al Jazeera were those comparing how the Jews and Muslims have reacted to adversity. Speaking of the Holocaust, she said, "The Jews have come from the tragedy and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror; with their work, not with their crying and yelling."

She went on, "We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people."

Time Wasters Unite for Hoops at Work

CBS is putting the first three rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament on the web for free. They used to charge $19.95, but they figured they could put ads on the site to pay for it. Today's Boston Herald had the story.

Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas projects the productivity drain from games could cost employers $3.8 billion nationwide.

For every 13.5 minutes fans in the office spend watching the games on the Internet, employers would lose $237 million in wages, according to Challenger.

“Those live feeds will make it so simple for people to just turn on the game and leave it up on their computer,” said Chief Executive John A. Challenger. “It will inevitably be distracting and it will take some attention from work.”

Of course, the economy’s loss is CBS’ gain. With money increasingly being allocated toward online ads, the No. 2 network is looking at a slam dunk with big-name advertisers.

CBS is paying the NCAA $6 billion over 11 years for the exclusive broadcast and digital rights to the organization’s programming, including the men’s tournament, according to Bloomberg News.

Challenger said trying to block the CBS-owned Web site to ensure workers are focused on the task at hand is a bad strategy. Instead, employers should use the tournament to create some positive morale around the office.

“If you can’t beat ’em, you might as well join ’em,” Challenger said.

Saturday Morning at the GoNOMAD Cafe

Saturday morning, I awoke from a somewhat fitful sleep. I had to be at the cafe to open at 6:30 am. I thought about the coffee that awaited...the strong stuff, the kind that really wakes you up. GoNOMAD blend to the rescue! It is my new employee Dianne Suller's first day on the job. She was nervous; so was I. I haven't worked here without my main man Alan Wickwire to guide me. But as the boss, you do these things, so here I am, in my storefront window, waiting for customers.

I got a nice piece of advice from Sean Pierce, one of two brothers who roast our coffee. He said that our location was perfect, and there is nothing like us in town--no where else to get the kind of coffee and lattes that we offer. He said he thought we could grow and grow and if we keep at it, develop a strong following here.

I've taken the pills--I believe, lord, I believe....we'll stick it out until they find us, and work like hell to bring people into 'the little cafe that could.'

In this spirit, today I am offering Computer Q&A for anyone with a question. I am bringing in Joe who knows everything, and I hope there are some folks with questions we can answer. Hey, even if only a few show up, we're still happy to help them.

Battery Life: The Last Big Hurdle Might be Solved

Jason Lee Miller writes in today's Web Pro News about big, big news, in science.

"M.I.T. just announced a battery breakthrough. Successfully scaling down technology in development over the past 40 years, the crew at M.I.T has put together what they call "the first technologically significant and economically viable alternative to conventional batteries in more than 200 years."

In less esoteric terms, that means soon consumers won't need to worry about mobile phone or notebook computer battery lifespan. It will power up and stay powered up.

The energy storage device is called an ultracapacitor-a next generation super-battery that stores energy as an electrical field using atomic-level nanotube structures.

Developed by M.I.T.'s Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES), the ultracapacitors hold a 10-year-plus lifetieme, are indifferent to temperature change, highly immune to shock and vibration, and have high charging and discharging efficiency.

The key to developing an ultracapacitor small enough to be used in mobile electronics and outlast a standard lithium ion battery was the utilization of vertically aligned, single-wall carbon nanotubes.

By making them vertically aligned, developers were able to overcome problems with irregular shapes that reduced efficiency and increased surface area.

Thug Says He Had Howie in his Gun Sights

Ralph Ranalli writes in today's Boston Globe about a chilling story to be told on 60 Minutes this Sunday.

"A former top lieutenant to South Boston crime boss James ''Whitey" Bulger said he had Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr in the sights of a high-powered rifle but didn't shoot because Carr came out of his house hand-in-hand with his young daughter.

''I was down at his house . . . about 5:30 in the morning, across the street in a cemetery with a rifle, waiting for him to come out," Bulger henchman Kevin Weeks told the television show ''60 Minutes" in an interview. ''And he come [sic] out . . . between 7:15, 7:30, and he had his daughter with him."

''I assume it was his daughter, young girl," Weeks told correspondent Ed Bradley, according to a press release issued by CBS yesterday. ''He was holding her by the hand, going to his car. So I had to pass on it. I didn't want to kill him in front of his daughter."

Carr acknowledged living across the street from a cemetery in Acton and allowed that Weeks could have been there. He told the news program, though, that he believes Weeks probably lacked the fortitude to go through with the crime.

''It doesn't seem like Kevin would have the stones to do it," he told Bradley. ''If he said Whitey was there, well, you wouldn't be interviewing me, because I'd be dead."

Publish the Story--Drug Lords will Kill You

In the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, the local paper has a dilemma: if they publish the story about the drug cartel's murders, they will be killed. So they buried the story deep into the paper, hoping to get away with a lower profile and perhaps be spared the wrath of the Mexican drug mob. The San Antonio daily had this report.

"NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — It was the deadliest shootout in recent memory, but the killing of two state police officers barely cracked the front pages of the newspapers in this violence-stricken city.

Five slayings — all believed related to drug trafficking — were recorded here Tuesday. While the news of the two dead cops circulated among the national Mexican news media and some U.S. outlets, the high-level killings were conspicuously hidden among the inside pages of local newspapers.

Resisting threats from suspected drug cartel members to not publish anything about Tuesday's shootout, newspapers in Nuevo Laredo printed brief, anonymous stories.

But for editors, publishing the story felt less like an act of defiance and more like a retreat from the journalistic standards they want to give their readers.

The reality is that we're in a situation where there is no freedom to publish," one newspaper editor said on the condition of anonymity, fearing for his reporters' safety.

"When all of the papers are (burying) it in the same way, something is going on," the editor said, referring to the inside-page treatment that the story received.

The newspapers El Mañana, El Diario and Ultima Hora all printed reports of fewer than 200 words.

The Wireless is Free--Just Ask Our Neighbor!

Sitting in the cafe today, I met a man who lives across the street. "Right over there, he said, in that yellow building, up on the second floor." He just bought a new laptop, our head tech at Computer Cleaners Joe Obeng helped him pick it out.

"You know he gave me good advice, and your wireless signal works in my apartment." Well that is good...I guess. The strong signal from the cafe's wireless is providing him with free Internet over there across the street from our business. We originally wanted to provide town wireless, for a fee....but there are not enough people like this man to make that pay off yet.

In the big picture, this is good. And it doesn't cost us anything for him to jump on our network and get his email and read websites. We should be happy that he knows enough to hook up. Maybe after we've had the cafe open for a few months, and have settled into a good cashflow routine, then I'll be happy that our wireless is being shared by our coffee customer across the street.

Scary, Exhilarating, Fun and Intense--The Cafe

Wow. That is what it is like to own a cafe. Wow, I can't believe all of the details that go into this. Wow, people really like the place, they come in with smiles on their faces and say "this is a really nice cafe."

I have never worked this hard nor felt this level of adreneline, just sitting at the register ringing in orders, and chatting up the customers, trying not to be nervous as I make my first soy latte, it all is fun, and tense, yet strangely satisfying.

I told some customers how different it is to have a cafe, where people come in and sit, and to serve coffee and pastries...that is so different from our regular business, the GoNOMAD website. The web business is removed, it is mostly emails and contacts with people far far away, none of them are people I'd meet. But this, this is about the community, and the people who come here mostly all live right around the neighborhood.

It's fun, it's exhilarating, it's scary as hell. But it's mine.

Inside the New GoNOMAD Cafe

The cafe business is much harder than it looks. As I sit here on our first official day, I was pleased to see some of the same people who came by when we were giving away the coffee free. Good sign, they will pay for this. We also saw a few folks who buy coffee for the whole gang every day, taking a customary walk to the store to get a break, and a few of them stopped here instead of their old haunts.

But boy, this is tiring, and now I can see why people who start their workday at 7 am are pretty beat by 3 or 4. We usually stay here at GoNOMAD until 7 or 8 pm, but tonight. Well, tonight we won't be hanging around that long.

I gotta get up and do this again tomorrow at seven!

Can't Sleep--It's Time to Open the GoNOMAD CAFE

Today is the big day, and because of this, I cannot sleep. I spent all afternoon and most of the evening working at the new cafe, it feels like there is so much more to do that it will never be done. Buying things, making signs, creating flyers, figuring out what will go where and how we'll serve the coffee, pastries and fruit. When I left at 11 pm, I tried to sleep, but was awake with minor details buzzing my head like tiny annoying insects.

I did not know what it would take to create a food business--my sister Jenny warned me that it was much more than the laid-back business I run doing the website. This new cafe takes so many more people, and products, and DETAILS!

That said, I haven't been this excited for years to go open our doors and see the public coming in. Today's the soft opening, Tuesday we will be officially part of downtown South Deerfield; Wish us luck!

The Shop Girl Deserves a Man Who Loves Her

The plane ride was long, so there were more movies on Virgin last night. The second feature was made from a Steve Martin novella, The Shop Girl. Once again it was a case of characters developing, changing, and moving forward in their lives that made this movie poignant and delightful. The shopgirl is the beautiful Claire Danes, beautiful in her classic lines and becoming smile. She works at Saks, and meets Steve Martin, an irresistable 50-something multi-millionaire who woos here in a style that becomes a man of taste and wealth. At the same time, she meets a man her age in a laundromat, and he clumsily tries to take her out.

Martin's Ray Porter has all of the things that a woman would want, he makes me jealous just thinking of the trappings he brings to the table--private jet, house overlooking LA, a Seattle pad, and the ability to buy apartments and pay off massive college loans. But the one thing he can't offer is true fidelity and devotion....that's a little harder, and as he says, money is the easy thing to give.

All the while the younger man is learning and growing, and when he tells her he'll protect her, our hearts are with them--despite Porter's charm, sophistication and generosity. It was so sweet the way this movie evolves, in a wonderfully slow and deliberate way that works perfectly.

Cage is Brilliant as The Weatherman

My flight from London was a cinematic delight. My first choice was The Weatherman, a film I had just read about on the previous flight. The film is about a Chicago weatherman who is pitiful in spite of his big salary...because he gets no respect.

Passersby throw milkshakes and fast food at him from cars, his ex-wife confesses she has always hated felacio with him because she hates him, his 12-year-old daughter is overweight and lethargic, sneaking cigarettes and is bored by him, and his son at 15 is in rehab, being pursued by a pedophelic counselor. But that is not the worst of his problems.

That job comes down to Michael Caine, who plays his Nobel Prize winning super successful father. Once again I found myself getting teary as I felt poor Dave try so hard to get his father to notice him, or just say anything positive about him. Pitifully, he leaves a letter on the seat of his car hoping dad would see it, but there is nothing but scorn from his dad. The world is killing him, but Dave fights back. He battles the demons one by one, and succeeds wildly. Facing a terminal illness, the father relents, he eeks out just a bit of recognition, he gives the poor son those words that he strives for. It is powerful and beautiful and made me weep once again.

The Dancing, Drinking and Fun of Cyprus' Carnival

On our last night in Cyprus, we went to the center of Limossos to a tavern on a sidesteet, during tonight's carnival. That is the time when people dress up in costumes and party later than usual, in honor of the festival preceeding Easter. We squeezed into a corner table in the low-ceilinged taverna and a man came in dressed as a sheik...then two women entered dressed like birds, then a man dressed as a bride. We ate meze...dozens of small dishes starting with salad, then beets, roasted mushrooms, and octopus, and lamb with onions, then pork in a brown sauce, egads, then potatoes, then a stuffed grape leaves, and little round fritters, then a towering platter with a lit sterno and meat to heat up. The waiters kept filling our wine glasses, and the table was filled with streamers that we threw down the long table, aiming for glasses....then the music began.

The musicians played the traditional tunes, sounding sort of middle eastern, and the people began to dance in a small area in front. Women sat up during the music and swayed their hands out, undulating to the beat of the little guitars and drums...people clapped and gyrated, and one of our group, and older writer named Stan, got up to dance with Maria, who knew how to dance to the music. A woman beside us tipped her head way back, feeling the music, and it was a festive and fun night the beginning of carnival in Cyprus. We left the restaurant and two of our party wanted to stay, they were tempted by the Brazilian music in a nearby club. We bade them good bye to take a cab while we woke up our bus driver to take us home to the hotel to fly back to our lives at 6:45 tomorrow.

Everybody in Cyprus Has Solar Power, but not Wireless

Blogging every day is what I shoot for on my journeys, but it isn't as easy as it sounds. We stayed at a five-star hotel with the swankiest ocean view rooms and marble everything, but the only link to my beloved 'Net was one slow dial up computer with a 15-minute limit. Now we've moved on to Le Meridian, an even swankier place where the owner of the hotel is having his son's wedding tonight for 1500 guests. Hey they even invited us journalists to join the party.

Cyprus continues to impress, with its lush green hills, sea views, and rustic country lanes. Yesterday we drove by Land Rover over rough hillside roads, passing banana trees, groves of almonds, lemons and oranges, and finally ended up at the Baths of Aphrodite. It is kind of charming to see how these Cypriots have physical spaces named for mythical gods, but they double as beautiful spots in nature, and I guess we can go along with the fantasy.

The other most prevalent thing we see here are rooftop solar panels and ubiquitous white tanks, on every roof there is that tank that looks like a lifeboat on a ship. Solar power takes care of just about all of the water heating here--it was imported from Israel, and with the prices of oil and gas this seems like a pretty good investment opportunity for the U.S.