September 10, 2006, 9:15 PM CT

Here's A Reason To Buy A Ferrari

(Note: this is just a cheap, gratuitous excuse to show this photo.).

The new Ferrari 599 Fiorano now comes with an iPod dock as standard equipment. Forget the powerful V12 engine, the F-1 trac system, the continuous wheel monitoring system that helps it hold the road. or the fact that this beauty goes from 0-60 in under 4 seconds. Helpful when you're stitting in LA rush hour traffic.

But at least now you've got your music with you.........

Posted by: Jim      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 6:55 PM CT

This Year's Corn Maze

Below is the Maze as it lurched through late July featuring Julia's portrait and brandishing some of the tools of the cooking trade. The cut out areas will include a potato putting course, tomato trebuchet, potato cannons and anything else we can throw in, maybe even the kitchen sink.

Area restaurants, including Bub's Barbecue and The Blue Heron, will help us celebrate Julia's legacy by bringing a taste of their food to Mike's cornfield.........

Posted by: Gina      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 6:49 PM CT

Look Who Is The Divinity School Dropout

In 1976, a deeply religious child named Thomas Cruise Mapother IV enrolled in a Franciscan seminary in New Jersey. Within five years, he'd ditched the church, dropped the Mapother, and landed a part in Endless Love. And in spite of his diminutive height (5 feet 7 inches) the man who might have been a priest became one of Hollywood's top leading men.

Around 1986, though, he abandoned Catholicism altogether, embracing the Church of Scientology, which he once credited with helping him overcome dyslexia. Wildly popular with celebrities, Scientology is the path of choice to "clarity" for everyone from John Travolta to the guy who played Parker Lewis in Parker Lewis Can't Lose. Incidentally, Scientology does have ministers - but while Cruise remains an active member and apologist for the group, he has yet to seek ordination.

See more dropouts.........

Posted by: Gina      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 6:41 PM CT

Cooking For 30,000 People

At the Yamagata Imoni Festival ("Yamagata potato stew festival") last weekend, 100 chefs gathered around a cauldron measuring 6 meters (20 feet) in diameter to prepare potato soup for 30,000 guests. The 18th annual festival organized by the Yamagata Chamber of Commerce and Industry was held on the banks of the Mamigasaki River in Yamagata prefecture.

As the centerpiece of a PR campaign to spur consumption of local agricultural products, the soup was made entirely from local ingredients, including 3 tons of taro potatoes (satoimo), 1.2 tons of beef, 3,500 blocks of konnyaku (yam paste), 3,500 leeks, 50 bottles of sake, 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of sugar, 700 liters (185 gallons) of soy sauce, and 6 tons of water. After the stew boiled for 4 hours, 2 backhoes were used to scoop it into smaller cauldrons for easier serving. The soup was reported to have a refreshing soy sauce flavor.

A separate batch of miso-flavored potato soup with pork was prepared in a smaller cauldron measuring 3 meters in diameter.........

Posted by: Tom      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 6:28 PM CT

Skeleton Of Cartoon Characters

See the skeleton of cartoon characters on this Korean site.

Fabulous crations.........

Posted by: Gina      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 6:04 PM CT

In Katrina's Wake

Chris' new book titled "In Katrina's Wake" was released in August by Princeton Architectural Press in New York. This collaborative project features Chris' Katrina photographs, essays by writers Bill McKibben and Susan Zakin, and poems by Victoria Sloan Jordan. One-hundred percent of Chris' proceeds from this book will be donated to Gulf Coast hurricane relief charities.

Chris has been selected as the recipient of the 2006 Fellowship Award from the Society For Contemporary Photography in Kansas City, Missouri. Chris' Katrina series will be featured in the upcoming SCP International Photomedia Biennial (December 2006), and SCP will host a solo show of Chris' work in late 2007. The award juror was Leslie A. Martin of Aperture Books.........

Posted by: Tom      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 5:51 PM CT

Nice looking Lemur software clone

If you're lusting after a JazzMutant Lemur controller, but don't have €2,000, here is a cheap alternative. Mono Touch Live runs on any PC with any touchscreen monitor, and it's set up to control Ableton Live. It's not the first, but it's (nearly) a real commercial product, and it certainly has the look.

It was developed by Argentinian DJ Pablo Martin (DJ Grobe), and should be available in October. Obviously it's single touch only (one of the a number of magic things about the real lemur is that you can control as a number of parameters as you have fingers, simultaneously). It's not user-programmable, and it doesn't come in a super-cute all-in-one controller, but until Behringer release the Marmoset MS1000 multi-touch controller for £99, it's the best we have.........

Posted by: Gina      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 12:02 AM CT

Traditional Healers Are Legitimate Resources

As per numerous studies, American Indian youth experience disproportionate rates of mental health and behavioral problems, including substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicidal thoughts.

To address this critical problem, an adolescent mental health expert at Washington University in St. Louis says that traditional healers in American Indian communities may be a valuable but under-recognized resource offering alternative and culturally relevant services that complement conventional medical therapy.

"Non-Western approaches like traditional healing need to be recognized as legitimate and complementary services in American Indian communities," says Arlene R. Stiffman, Ph.D., the Barbara A. Bailey Professor of Social Work at Washington University. "Traditional healers should be recognized for their important involvement in the mental health and behavioral care system in American Indian communities," she adds.

In a study recently reported in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, Stiffman examined traditional healers, their backgrounds, roles, services to youth, referral patterns and the characteristics and problems of the youth they serve. The study is titled "Traditional Healers as Service Providers to Southwestern American Indian Urban and Reservation Youth."........

Posted by: Tom      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 11:08 AM CT

Options Backdating By Bending The Rules

Now that the U.S. Senate Finance Committee has returned from its summer holiday, members have put the recent spate of backdating stock options at the top of the agenda. Several professors from the business school at Washington University in St. Louis are ready to discuss the implications backdating has on corporations and shareholders.

It is believed that dozens, if not hundreds, of companies across the country may have improperly manipulated the dates of stock options grants to coincide with low points in the value of their companies' shares. Among the a number of firms that have been implicated in options backdating are Apple Computer Inc., Comverse Technology, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., Affiliated Computer Systems and Monster Worldwide Inc.

The reason that companies grant options is entirely logical, said Richard Frankel, associate professor of accounting. It's a way to get managers on the same page with the shareholders.

"Managers don't intrinsically have the same interest in growing the company as shareholders do; they tend to be more conservative," Frankel said. "It's particularly costly for them if they make a decision that hurts the company, so they tend to be rather risk-averse.

"Options are intended to do two things: increase the connection between a manager's payout and the share price, and encourage managers to take risks," Frankel said.........

Posted by: Mac      Permalink         Source

September 9, 2006, 10:34 AM CT

Restating Earnings Hurts The Company And Peers

No company wants to issue an accounting restatement; it's a guaranteed way for the share price to drop 10 percent, on average. Investors, analysts and journalists alike view restatements as an indication of a problem within the company. As per a professor at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, when a company announces a restatement of revenues or expenses, there is value in looking at its industry peer firms.

Based on an evaluation of more than 22,500 public companies, accounting professor Nicole Thorne Jenkins and her co-authors observed that a company's restatement adversely affects not only its own stock price, but also that of similar firms.

"When a firm announces a restatement, there is a significantly negative market reaction," said Jenkins. "The information communicated by a restatement is transferred to similar firms. The market reacts to that information transfer similarly but to a lesser degree because there is some uncertainty that the same reporting problem exists in other companies."

Upon news of a company's accounting restatement, peer firms experience a cumulative average decrease of 1.82 percent in the 21 days following the initial restatement. The effect is even more pronounced for firms that have poor accounting quality or that have the same auditor as the restating firm.........

Posted by: Mac      Permalink         Source