A Boot Camp to Prepare for Retirement

This article describes a retirement planning exercise, illustrating the steps to go through to determine if you're ready to retire. The article says that a full 80% of participants realize they're not ready to retire.
Part of the plan is the following: start paying quarterly instalments of taxes, something you may never have had to do whole employed, so you don't get a surprise huge bill at tax time.

YOUR MONEY: A Boot Camp to Prepare for Retirement

By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD

Eight drills to determine if your finances are healthy enough for you stop working — and to help get them on track if they're not....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/your-money/25money.html

Managing an Online Reputation

This article introduced me to the term 'astroturfing', meaning
generating a fake grassroots campaign, for example by having your
employees write raving reviews of their own company.

Managing an Online Reputation
By KERMIT PATTISON

Monitoring Web conversations, interacting with customers and honing
your technical know-how can help your business get ahead....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/business/smallbusiness/30reputation.html

Fatal Tunnel Accident

Don't cut in front of trucks in traffic! this video shows just how
much force a truck imparts because of its massive weight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clhIce8hteY

NYTimes: No Apologies From the Boss of a No-Frills Airline

Wow - Being crotchety, irascible, blunt, and peevish nets you $500 million.

No Apologies From the Boss of a No-Frills Airline

By SARAH LYALL

Michael O'Leary believes that short-haul airline passengers will endure almost any indignity, as long as the tickets are cheap and the planes are on time....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/world/europe/01oleary.html

NYTimes: Ads Follow Web Users, and Get More Personal

Big brother is *advertising* to you. Did you know, for instance, that data-mining companies have 1500 pieces of information on every person in America. So says this article - read on...

Ads Follow Web Users, and Get More Personal

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Marketers have started mining the mountain of offline information and connecting it to consumers' browsers....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/media/31privacy.html

Disaster quotation

"That's how disaster works - one moment it's today and all the days
that came before it, and the very next moment the future becomes
unrecognizable." - 'Disaster in the making' by Lisa Taddeo, Popular
Science Aug '09

Tesla Dealer in Seattle

Yes, the Tesla dealer has opened in Seattle. You can go there for a
test drive, 435 Westlake, 206-682-2625

Tesla is an all-electric sports car for $100,000, and, no, I'm not signed up to get one.

See the photo gallery at

http://www.teslamotors.com/design/gallery-body.php

and videos at

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=teslamotorsvideo&view=videos

They have a 4-seater car in the works too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvzOdYVw6Pw&NR=1&feature=fvwp

COOL CLOCKS

Take a look at these clocks - fun to watch on your screen:
The animated hand drawing the numerals
http://www.kgr.de/uhr/

This one is an expensive $15 screensaver, but looks very cool -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoZmBjaFWto

This clock follows your mouse all over the screen
http://www.vb-helper.com/JavaScriptClock.html

This one shows time marching on...
http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf

This one I'd get tired of...

http://blog.pixelbreaker.com/polarclock/

And here's the other one pictured:

http://www.ironicsans.com/2008/03/idea_the_bulbdial_clock.html

http://www.toxel.com/tech/2008/09/29/collection-of-unusual-clock-designs/

http://www.holycool.net/2008/08/different-ways-to-tell-time-collection.html

The programmer of the first one has an intriguing site with many more clever animations at
http://yugop.com/ver3/index.asp?id=3

(His animations reminded me of the games at zefrank.com)
http://www.zefrank.com/

Latitude on iPhone

Finally! Google has made latitude available on the iPhone. Your
location using GPS is sent to Google so your friends can see where you
are. Now I'll have to find out if it updates location in the
background, or if you have to be running latitude to get location
updates.

Unfortunately, it doesn't update location in the background; you have to load the page m.google.com/latitude on your iphone to update your location.

Wind turbines are pushing the limits of their transportation

"[The] transportation logistics are starting to limit how large — and as a result how powerful — wind turbines can get."

BUSINESS / ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT   | July 23, 2009 Slow, Costly and Often Dangerous Road to Wind Power By KATE GALBRAITH As demand for clean energy grows, towns are finding their traffic patterns roiled by convoys carrying huge windmills.

Wars over resources: Water

This interesting interactive graphic shows some hot spots where access to water is or could spark a war.

http://awesome.good.is/transparency/016/016waterfights/index.html

In a Reversal, Mumbai Attacker Admits Guilt

The Mumbai hotel shootings were such an international disaster that the case was being hurried through the Indian court system at unprecedented speed, until suddenly the defendant stood up and stunned the courtroom with a full confession. The article goes on to say that, incredibly,
"It is not unusual for cases to last for a decade or more in India."

INTERNATIONAL / ASIA PACIFIC July 21, 2009 In a Reversal, Mumbai Attacker Admits Guilt By VIKAS BAJAJ and LYDIA POLGREEN The only survivor among the team of gunmen who killed more than 160 people offered a dramatic and unexpected confession.

Gauging Your Distraction

Can you beat the average user at this game?  How well can you drive while you're texting?   TECHNOLOGY   | July 19, 2009 Gauging Your Distraction Gabriel Dance, Tom Jackson and Aron Pilhofer/The New York Times A game illustrates the potential consequences of distractions like texting on your driving ability.

Prefab building material safe, non-toxic, green

http://www.kama-eebs.com/sitepage.php?_p_=15

Sent from my iPhone

Bizarre Human Powered Boats

Take a look at these boats, and these. Very inventive. Like, the aquaskipper.
Also, there's the Cadence - an 83 pound pedal kayak.
These craft are hard to sell - most of the links in the newspaper article about pedal craft are broken suggesting they went out of business.