I wish I’d known about the “I think” / “maybe” item sooner, it does put some things in perspective.

Nick in Shanghai has written an excellent piece on the Top Ten Mistakes Native Chinese Speakers Make When Speaking English.

Of law, sausage, and charity…

One of the big stories in the world of charity at the end of 2007 was a new kid on the block, a hedge-fund-trader-headed meta-charity called Givewell which was promising to shake up the world of philanthropy by analyzing other charities on a number of points and soliciting money to give as parts of its own grants. However after its founder transparently attempted to game the Ask Metafilter web site it turns out that Givewell combines a mix of high administration costs, shady publicity pratices, publicly bad-mouthing other charities and questionable behavior by board members.

Deutsche Bank: Merry Christmas renters! You’re now homeless!

Nothing says “Happy Holidays” more than being evicted from your apartment because your landlord got caught up in the subprime lending mess… at least that’s what Deutsche Bank clearly thinks, as they decide it’s absolutely necessary for a partially-blind pensioner to get the f… out of a building they’re trying to sell. Bonus: they “don’t see an upside” in explaining why that is so necessary, so they can’t be bothered.

Just think of the money you’ll save shopping around for funeral arrangements!

Ever wondered how much longer you have to live? Head to the Death Clock and wonder no more. I’d love to tell you more about this but according to it I’ve been dead for over three years already!

And the Janus prize for two-facedness goes to…

Pretty much everyone likes to speed a little sometimes. With a nice car and a nice bit of road, a decent driver will feel the beckoning and put his foot down a little. Of course sometimes some berk overdoes it and ruins it for everybody. He’s speed-camera happy Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police Meredydd Hughes, he’s prone to rant at speeders, and he got caught going 90mph in a 60mph zone. And now he’s lost his license.

The Great DVD Swindle?

With two competing rather-similar-but-incompatible standards both coming from industry heavyweights it’s easy to think that the high-definition DVD industry is being set up to fail no matter which camp wins. And now film director Michael Bay is squarely alleging that HD-DVD is actually somewhat of a scam orchestrated by Microsoft to ensure the failure of both high definition DVD formats and eventually ensure success for its own upcoming downloadable solutions. Hmm… Sony vs. Microsoft… there’s really no one to root FOR here.

These guys really are reaching the poorest of the poor…

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project was intended to provide children too poor to buy PCs (and pretty much anything beyond food and shelter) with a user-friendly, virtually-indestructible computing device. Its primary market is the Third World, and I’m glad to report that they’re making inroads on that front by making a deal with the city of Birmingham, Alabama. It’s heart-warming to see that people whose lives are blighted by having to live in Alabama are finally getting some good news!

Evidently I know much less than I thought about Judaism!

Nothing says “Happy Hannukah” more than a traditional… ham? Surprisingly that photo was taken at Balducci’s in New York.

My credit card bills suddenly look insignificant.

Many people wonder about the extent of the subprime lending crisis in the US. I hope this man’s case is not typical! He got a letter from Wachovia Bank telling him he owed over $211 trillion dollars. Now I know that for years banks have been extending too much credit, but that’s just ridiculous!

About me…

I used to have a very interesting page telling people all about myself in there, but a WordPress “upgrade” destroyed it (Gee, thanks, WordPress) so I’m afraid it’s gone now and I can’t be bothered to recreate it. Sorry!